


and what came before won't count anymore

by hwrites



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: F/M, a "Notting Hill" AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-09-17 23:42:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 30,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16984050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hwrites/pseuds/hwrites
Summary: "You would have to be living under a rock to not know who Scott Moir is.He’s an actor, having quickly nabbed a starring role in some independent film that Tessa hasn’t seen, but her sister probably has. It was this indie film that catapulted his career into the spotlight, and now he’s been the most-talked about actor of the year."orA "Notting Hill" AU.





	1. Chapter 1

Tessa Virtue likes her job, more than she ever thought that she would.

It may be quiet and slow most days, working in a shoe store alongside her boss, a lovely woman named Marie-France (who’s dream it had been to open a shoe store of her very own after she’d spent years working in her grandfather’s store), but she won’t trade this job for anything.

The shop is quite cozy, with shelf after shelf stacked almost to the ceiling with men’s and women’s shoes of all types. The store hasn’t started carrying children’s shoes yet, although Tessa doesn’t know why. She makes a mental note to ask her boss about it later.

At the store, _ma petite chaussure_ , people can either buy shoes or donate shoes to the store, in the way that one would at a used bookstore.

Whenever people donate shoes, Tessa always sits behind the cash register, her usual seat, with a cloth and disinfectant spray, wiping down every shoe after carefully inspecting it, to make sure that it’s something that can be sold. If it can’t be sold, then it’s usually returned to the owner, but most shoes that come through ma petite chaussure are in sellable condition.

Tessa has, however, seen some pretty gross shoes that she could hardly believe it when Marie-France had insisted they keep them. There was one particular instance, with a pair of shoes that had looked like someone had run over them with their car and then tried to put them in the washing machine.

Tessa still can’t believe that Marie-France kept those monstrosities. Even so, she can’t believe someone actually bought them.

Behind every shoe is a story, as Marie-France likes to say.

Tessa has a theory that that’s why her boss won’t throw away any shoes.

Another time, Tessa had tried to throw away a pair of green alligator-print shoes, but was stopped after Marie-France told her that they’d been worn by someone famous that she’d never heard of.

It’s been a very long day, dragging on as slow as molasses. Tessa almost can’t believe it’s only two o’clock; she feels like she’s been stocking and re-stocking the shelves forever.

The heavy door opens, signaling a customer, which makes Tessa perk up just a little bit.  
It’s a woman, rapid-firing questions over the phone as she peruses the aisles.

Tessa wants to tell her that the women’s shoes are in the back, but the lady has a very stern look on her face, and, when she starts yelling, Tessa realizes that it’s probably best that she hadn’t say anything.

She watches as the lady finally heads towards the back of the shop, still frantically questioning whoever is on the other line.

“James, I’m sorry that I couldn’t make it to your son’s birthday party, okay?” she snaps, and Tessa wonders what the hell this woman is doing in a shoe store.

“Sorry I’m so late,” Marie-France’s voice pulls her out of her thoughts, and she turns to see her boss has handed her a steaming cup of coffee from the bakery down the street. “I have so much paperwork to do, not to mention it’s Patch and I’s anniversary, so I–”

Inwardly, Tessa smiles. Her boss and her husband, Patch, are one of the cutest couples she knows. Sometimes, if he knows that his wife is having a particularly stressful week, Patch will show up at the shop with coffee and lunch for Marie-France, or he’ll come to take her out to lunch instead.

It’s easy to see that Marie-France and Patch are in love; the shoe store owner glows whenever she talks about her husband, an instant blush creeps onto her cheeks like the two are high schoolers with a crush and not a couple that has been married for years.

“You should take the rest of the day off,” Tessa interrupts her boss with a small smile.

“Tessa, no. I don’t want to just leave you here with that mountain of work–”

“It’s fine, go enjoy your night with Patch. It’s only your anniversary once a year, you know.”

Tessa’s boss is quiet for so long that she doesn’t think she’ll actually go home, but then she tilts her head to the side as a slow smile spreads across her lips.

“Okay, if you’re absolutely sure you’ll be fine on your own.”

Tessa rolls her eyes but laughs. “Of course, or else I wouldn’t have offered.”

“Well, I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.”

“Yeah, you most definitely will.”

After Marie-France leaves, she busies herself with thinking about rearranging the shelves, but ultimately decides against it, so she clicks on to the internet.

The door opens, and she doesn’t look up because she assumes that her boss forgot something, as is the tendency with Marie-France sometimes.

“What’d you forget this time?” she asks, still focused on the screen in front of her, where she’s logged onto her work email.

“Um, nothing?” an unfamiliar voice answers her, male and _definitely_ not her boss.

She looks up to see a guy in a dark t-shirt and jeans, sunglasses perched on his nose.

Which is weird, given that it’s raining outside, and, the last time Tessa checked, one doesn’t wear sunglasses in the rain.

She freezes when her eyes drink in the stranger’s hair; it’s dark brown, sticking straight up and messy atop his head. She almost thinks that she’s seen him before, but she has no idea when or how.

Get it together, Tessa. “Oh. Right. Sorry. I, um. Thought you were my boss. She usually forgets things, especially when she leaves early, like she did today.”

Why is she so nervous all of a sudden? This isn’t normal for her.

And then the guy takes off his sunglasses, and Tessa has to stop her jaw from physically dropping to the floor.

“It’s fine,” he tells her, as his chocolate eyes land on hers. 

She knows him, she thinks, but she isn’t one hundred percent sure. Not personally, so maybe the correct thing to say would be that she knows of him.

You would have to be living under a rock to not know who Scott Moir is. 

He’s an actor, having quickly nabbed a starring role in some independent film that Tessa hasn’t seen, but her sister probably has. It was this indie film that catapulted his career into the spotlight, and now he’s been the most-talked about actor of the year.

So, while Tessa hasn’t seen any of Scott Moir’s movies, she most certainly knows who he is. He’s graced her television in various commercials, and she’s almost positive that her sister, Jordan, is in love with him, but she doesn’t know that for sure.

She has one of two options: she can pretend like she doesn’t know it’s him (because, until she’s pulled up a picture, she won’t know for sure); or, she can address him as “Mr. Moir” and tell him that she’s there to help with all of his shoe shopping, should he need anything.

Then, the words are out of her mouth before she can stop them.

“Can I help you with anything?”

_Option one it is, then._

He smiles, and she’s at least 95% sure he is the famous actor Scott Moir, although she doesn’t think she knows of another Scott Moir.

“No, thank you. I’m just browsing for the time being.”

“Of course. Take your time.”

She has to stop herself from adding a _Mr. Moir_ on the end of that statement.

He probably wouldn’t like it very much if she outed him in front of the whole store, except she isn’t sure how big of a deal it would be, considering ‘the whole store’ is just the two of them.

A loud thunk a few minutes later interrupts Tessa’s thoughts, where she’s been answering an email.

“I’d like to buy these,” Scott tells her, and she nods before taking a look at the shoes.

They’re tennis shoes, covered in what looks like someone’s ripped-up jeans (Tessa is almost positive that these were a donation from a few months ago), and she looks up at him, horrified.

“Um, are you sure?”

He only nods with a shit-eating grin.

She rings up the shoes. “Okay, that’ll–”

A squeal drowns out the rest of her sentence. 

“Oh, my god! Can I have your autograph?” The lady from earlier, the one on the phone, asks, and her stomach is oddly square, protruding out in a way that Tessa hadn’t noticed earlier.

“Um, ma’am, is that a shoebox under your shirt?” she asks, not even glancing at Scott, because she knows that he’s probably trying to hold in laughter, and if she looks at him, she’ll absolutely lose it.

The woman stands up straighter and knits her eyebrows together, her hands clasped together under her stomach as if she’s holding it. “No! How dare you insinuate that my unborn child is a shoe box.”

“It’s oddly square, if I do say so myself,” Tessa comments, and the other lady sighs. “If you’re stealing, you know, I could just . . . call the cops on you, and I bet you wouldn’t like that very much, now would you?”

“Fine, I’m sorry,” she tells Tessa, retrieving the box from under her shirt. “Please don’t call the cops on me. But I want his autograph.”

She jerks her thumb in Scott’s direction, who, as she’d thought, looks like he’s trying not to laugh as Tessa hands him a piece of notebook paper and a pen for him to sign for the woman.

“What’s your name?” he asks, and Tessa almost answers before realizing that he’s not talking to her.

“Linda.”

He scribbles something on the paper before handing it to the woman, Linda.

She squints at it. “I can’t read your handwriting, what does it say?”

“Well, there’s my name, and it says, ‘Dear Linda, please don’t ever fake a pregnancy by stuffing a box of shoes under your shirt. It’s not particularly funny, just rude and inconsiderate.’”

Linda laughs, but it sounds fake. “I would ask if you want my number, but I’m already in a relationship.”

Scott just stares at her. “I mean,” he starts, scratching the back of his neck, “I don’t really want to date you, because, like, you’re not very nice?” 

“I’m sorry,” he adds, after half a second of silence, “that was pretty mean of me.”

The woman glowers at him before stomping away without saying anything else.

They both watch her leave, and then, once she’s out of earshot, Scott turns to her.

There’s a grin on his face again (she’s half-tempted to ask him if he’s never _not_ grinning, but she decides against it), and he takes his shoes from her after paying for it and turns it over in his hands.

“I was going to try that, but I don’t think that would be a good look for me. What do you think?”

Tessa can’t help it; the laughter that she’s been holding in ever since Linda appeared with the shoebox under her shirt bursts out of her and into the air between her and Scott. “I don’t know that I would try that if I were you.”

All he does is grin.

 

Later that night, Tessa is stopping at the bakery down the street from the store to get coffee, because she has to finish all of the paperwork that Marie-France was going to do earlier.

Before she realizes it, she runs someone on her way back home, spilling her coffee all over herself and whoever she’s run into.

“What the hell?” a male voice swears, and she doesn’t even register who it is just yet, too focused on the fact that she accidentally ran into someone and, in the process, spilled her coffee all over them.

Her eyes widen as she feels the hot liquid drip onto the pavement below. “Oh, shit. I’m so sorry!”

He sighs. “I’m already running late, what’s one more inconvenience?”

It’s at that moment that she realizes that she’s standing in front of Scott Moir, and, to make matters worse, he’s the one that she spilled her coffee on.

“I am so, so sorry. My apartment’s just over there if you want to change or something.”

“How far is your apartment? ‘Just over there’ doesn’t quite cut it, I’m afraid.”

She points to a forest green door just barely visible from where the two are standing. “My building is right there, it’s the one with the green door.”

Scott is quiet for a moment, seemingly thinking over her request and about how it can’t possibly hurt to change into clothes that are warmer and not covered in coffee, considering the fact that it’s still raining and there is a dark spot of coffee all over the front of his shirt.

“What’s your name?” he asks suddenly, and she remembers that they haven’t introduced themselves to each other yet.

“Tessa.”

“I'm Scott.”

_Yeah, I know_ , she wants to say. She doesn’t.

“Okay,” he relents, not looking at her, and that’s when she realizes that he’s talking about going over to her apartment.

Tessa nods, leading him down the street to her apartment building. 

She sets her keys in the bowl by the door once they get inside, shrugging off her coat and slipping off her shoes as if she’s forgotten that he’s there.

With how quickly her heart is beating in her chest (she tells herself it’s because she doesn’t have people over often), she doesn’t think that she can forget his presence.

“So . . .” he begins, and she turns to see him standing helplessly near the door.

“Oh! Right. The bathroom is upstairs and down the hall to the left.”

He sets the bag with his shoes in it down on a chair near the front door before nodding and heading up the stairs.

While he’s in the bathroom, she rushes to the kitchen, but it’s spotless, as usual, so she lets out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you,” Scott’s voice sounds from around the corner, and it takes another few seconds before he’s in front of her. “I really appreciate this, Tessa.”

She offers him a small smile, walks over to the fridge and gazes at its contents. “Do you want anything to eat while you’re here?”

“No, I’m good, thanks.”

“Nothing at all? Not even some water?”

He shakes his head.

Tessa studies him for a second, before she blinks and shakes her head.

_Knock it off, Virtue_ , she thinks. _You know he’s attractive. It’s basically a scientific fact at this point, but that doesn’t mean that you should be ogling him like you are now. He probably has a girlfriend._

“Well, as I said, thank you for being so kind,” Scott starts, walking over to the door without waiting to see if she’s following him.

She scurries to open the door for him. “It was my fault, really. But you’re welcome, Scott.”

Neither of them says anything for a few seconds.

“It was really great to meet you,” she admits, “Odd, but great.”

He gives her a small smile before shutting the door behind him.

_Odd, but great?_ she thinks, closing her eyes as she leans back against the door. _Who says that? That’s . . . a weird thing to say, Tessa. Oh well, it’s not like you’re going to see him ever again._

She opens her eyes to see that the bag with those horrible denim shoes is sitting on the chair, exactly where he had put it minutes before.

There’s a knock on the door she’s still leaning against just as she notices the bag, and she jumps at the loud sound before turning around to open the door.

Scott is on the other side.

“Hi.”

She blinks, forgetting that he’s here for his shoes. “Hi.”

“I forgot my shoes,” he explains.

“Right.” She opens the door wider to let him in, and he grabs the bag off of the chair.

They’re standing in front of the closed door, and then he surges forward and kisses her. 

When his lips press against hers, she forgets everything. How to move, how to kiss. It takes her a few seconds before she moves her mouth in time with his. His nose is squished against her cheek and she almost melts right there in the foyer of her apartment when his hands come to rest on her waist. The kiss is over as quickly as it began, and when she opens her eyes to see Scott’s chocolate eyes gazing into hers, she has to stop herself from instinctively kissing him again.

“Sorry,” he breathes, stepping away from her just as the doorknob turns.

“My roommate,” she explains, as he takes his hands off of her waist.  
Kaitlyn, Tessa’s roommate, bursts through the apartment and walks right in-between the two of them, not even noticing Scott’s presence.

“I have a date tonight!” she singsongs as she disappears into the kitchen.

“I should go,” Scott says, and Tessa nods in agreement, even though she really doesn’t want him to, not after that kiss. He opens the door, gives her one last grin, and then he’s gone.

“Tessa!” Kaitlyn calls. “Did you hear me? I have a date tonight.”

Tessa rolls her eyes. “You have a date almost every week with a new guy, Kaitlyn. I’m really not surprised at this. Should I be though?”

“You’re my roommate; that’s for you to decide.”

“Well, have fun, I guess. What’s his name?”

“Sam, I think. Or Evan, I don’t really remember.”

“You’re . . . going on a date with a guy whose name you don’t remember?”

“I’m pretty positive it’s Sam, but it might also be Evan. What’s wrong with that?” Kaitlyn blinks at her.

Tessa can’t help but sigh. “Nothing, Kaitlyn. Absolutely nothing.”

She can still feel Scott’s lips on hers and his hands on her waist, and she zones out on whatever Kaitlyn says next.

Her roommate snaps her fingers in front of her face with a sigh. “What’s gotten into you, Tess? Was it not a good day at work?”

“No, work was fine.” _Better than fine, actually._

“Did you see that Scott Moir is in talks to star in some new rom-com? It was all over Twitter.”

“Kaitlyn, you know I don’t have a Twitter. How would I know that?”

Her roommate shrugs at her, brushes past her on her way upstairs. “I don’t know, I thought maybe you’d decided to join Twitter. It’s not so bad, Tessa.”

She doesn’t answer.

“Hey,” Kaitlyn calls down the stairs a few seconds later, “If my date with Sam/Evan doesn’t go well tonight, why don’t we watch Scott’s newest movie?”

“Sounds good!” Tessa responds.

Kaitlyn’s date with Sam/Evan must go well, because she and Tessa don’t end up watching Scott’s newest movie.

_But it’s fine,_ Tessa tells herself, _do you really want to watch one of his movies after meeting him in real life? Probably not._


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa winds up interviewing Scott for a movie she hasn't seen him in.

A few days later, Tessa is the only one in the store, because Patch took Marie-France on a surprise anniversary trip.

He’d told her about it ahead of time, just so she wouldn’t be surprised when her boss didn’t show up to work for a few days.

The two are supposed to return today, but since Tessa doesn’t know when that will be, she’s sure that her boss won’t come in immediately getting home from a vacation.

She doesn’t even notice as the door opens, because she’s behind the front desk, too busy trying to figure out what the sales were for this past week. However, she’s never been very good with numbers, so she doesn’t entirely understand what she’s looking at.

The sound of someone clearing their throat makes her almost fall off of her chair, but it captures her attention, that’s for sure.

It’s a man, who looks very irritated right now. His jaw is set and he’s frowning, not to mention the fact that his fingers are angrily drumming against the counter top.

“Hello,” he states, still looking angry.

She eyes him warily and rattles off her usual spiel. “Hello, welcome to _ma petite chaussure_ , I’m Tessa. How can I help you today?” 

“My grandson is turning three next week and all he wants is a pair of Spider-Man tennis shoes, do you have any?”

“I’m sorry, we don’t carry children’s shoes.” 

“Your store is literally called ‘ _ma petite chaussure_ ,’ which translates to ‘my little shoe’ in French. Surely you have some kid’s shoes?” 

“I can assure you, sir, that we do not have any kid’s shoes, as I’ve said before.” 

“What about shoes for my granddaughter?” 

“What size shoe does she wear?” 

“A one, in kids.” 

Tessa frowns at him. “I’m sorry, sir. I just told you that we don’t sell children’s shoes.” 

“Well, she really likes penguins, do you have any shoes with penguins on them?” The man gestures wildly when he talks, which makes her flinch.

“No. We don’t have shoes with penguins on them, because we don’t _carry_ children’s shoes,” she all but shouts, and then the man turns on his heel and stomps out of the store.

Soon after the man leaves, the door opens again. Tessa is about to tell off whoever it is that has come into the store, because she thinks it’s that man again, but then she shuts her mouth when she sees the back of the man’s head. His hair is dark and sticking straight up on his head, although it’s less messy than it had been the first time he was in here.

_Scott_ , she thinks, and she feels her heart-rate speed up at the thought of seeing him again. Her palms are instantly sweating, and the pen that she’s been holding falls from her hand and onto the counter, causing the man she thinks is Scott to turn around.

And then her heartbeat slows as she sees it isn’t, in fact, Scott, but rather one of the regulars that always comes into the shop around the same time every day.

“Hello, Arnold,” Tessa says, and Arnold smiles and nods at her when she greets him.

He doesn’t usually buy anything, and today is no exception.

Arnold does, however, talk her ear off about some promotion that he got from his job, and how it means that he has to move, and therefore he’s sad that he won’t be a regular at _ma petite chaussure_ anymore.

She smiles and congratulates him when he tells her about the promotion, but she can’t help but wish that it had been Scott standing in front of her instead.

She instantly reprimands her brain for thinking that Arnold was Scott. Surely, she should know the regulars whenever she sees them, shouldn’t she?

That’s definitely something she needs to work on. In addition to not expecting to see Scott everywhere she goes just because he kissed her once.

That kiss may or may not have been the best kiss of her life, but she doesn’t need anyone to know for sure.

 

After her shift is over and she’s gotten to her building, she opens the door to find Kaitlyn sweeping the kitchen floor while looking at her phone.

Tessa is amazed that her roommate can sweep the floor and look at her phone at the same time.

“Hey, Kaitlyn,” she greets, setting her purse down on the table.

Kaitlyn looks up from her phone and pockets it with a sheepish grin. “Hi, Tessa. How was work?”

“Good, nothing too special happened today. Why do you look like you’re a teenager who’s just been caught making out with her boyfriend? Spill.”

It takes Kaitlyn a moment to answer. She grins, opens her mouth and closes it a few times before she actually can answer. “So, you know how I went on that date with Oliver a few nights ago?”

Tessa knits her eyebrows together in confusion. “Oliver?”

“Oh, right. Before I left, I thought that his name was Sam, or Evan? Yeah, it turns out that it wasn’t either of those. It was Oliver, and, um . . .”

Tessa almost laughs when Kaitlyn is quiet for longer than she’s expecting. “Okay, so, what about Oliver?”

“He just wasn’t the right guy for me. He kept talking about how he used to eat peanut butter when he was a kid, and it was so irritating.”

“Yeah. Oliver sounds _great_.”

Kaitlyn only ignores her and continues tapping away on her phone. Tessa thinks the conversation is over, so she turns to leave, but her roommate’s voice stops her.

“Sorry, I got distracted. I’m messaging with someone else, and he seems way nicer than Oliver. So, this is off-topic, but I definitely just remembered that some guy called for you the other day, but why would someone be calling for you?” Kaitlyn takes one look at her face and laughs. “Oh, my God, Tessa! You’re hiding something from me, aren’t you?”

She freezes. _Yes_ , she thinks. “Um, no? Why would I be hiding something? Whoever it was probably was just calling to put in an order for the store.”

“He said his name was Scott, but then he gave a completely different name when he hung up. He was calling from some fancy hotel, The Ritz-Carlton, I think. I can’t remember the name he gave me when he hung up, though. Who changes their name at the end of a phone call, especially if they were just ordering shoes? That doesn’t even make any sense. I told him that he shouldn’t call here again if he doesn’t even know his own name.”

_Scott_ called for her? And Kaitlyn is just telling her this _now_?

Kaitlyn must see the look on her face, must realize that this is serious in some way, because she instantly pockets her phone and sits down at the table, gestures for Tessa to do the same. Except that Tessa is so angry that she can hardly see straight.

That phone call would have been her only chance to talk to Scott, and now that’s gone, thanks to Kaitlyn and her unfiltered way of talking to strangers.

“What’s wrong, Tess? If it was just some guy calling to order shoes, then it’s probably for the best that he couldn’t remember his own name. I’m sure Marie-France wouldn’t want you to sell shoes to someone who gives the name of a cartoon character when they hang up the phone instead of their actual name.”

“Nothing’s wrong. It’s just, um, that one pair of shoes was a very important sale that would have helped business out a lot. It’s been pretty slow around the shop lately, you know, and I bet that guy was going to by a very expensive pair of shoes, because he came into the store the other day and he . . . was looking at a pair of very expensive shoes, but when I asked him about it, he said he would have to ‘think about it.’”

She has no idea why she’s lying. Actually, she does, but she has no idea why she’s going so far with it. She knows that if Kaitlyn found out that it was Scott Moir trying to contact her, she would probably freak out and insist on talking to him. She’d probably try to set Scott and Tessa up, or Scott and _herself_ up, which would make Tessa laugh.

Plus, Tessa hasn’t really dated in the past few years. She’d had a serious boyfriend in high school, but then he broke up with her two years into college, saying that he didn’t want to “be responsible for the commitment that dating her came with.” (She still doesn't know what that means.)

She found out a few months later that he’d been cheating on her, and it took her a long time to get over it. Not because she was so in love with him that she didn’t even know what to do with herself, but because she didn’t think she was actually in love with him. She just thought it was nice to have someone there for her whenever she needed him, even though he wasn’t there whenever she needed him. She felt guilty about the fact that she wasn’t in love with him, which was why it took her so long to get over him.

Her mind moves on from her ex-boyfriend to Scott, who she doesn’t consider her boyfriend. She’s not even close to thinking of him like that, and Tessa doesn’t think she wants Kaitlyn to find out that the Scott that called for her is Scott Moir, because then she’d ask too many questions, such as _Do you like him?_ , and Tessa wouldn’t even know how to answer that.

Add to that the fact that they’ve met, like, twice. That’s not exactly a good indicator on whether you want to date someone.

Tessa isn’t sure that she would even _want_ to date Scott, because he’s so well-known that he probably has all of these movies or TV shows lined up with no time for a girlfriend. They would date for a few months before getting sick of the fact that he’s always busy filming movies while she’s still working in the shoe store.

She doesn’t even know why she’s thinking about dating him, if she’s completely honest.

“Well,” Kaitlyn’s voice pulls her back to the present and washes away all thoughts of dating-or-not dating Scott Moir, “if it makes you feel any better, I think he said his name was Batman. Or Robin, one of the two.”

Considering Kaitlyn couldn’t even remember the name of the guy she went on a date with last week until she met with him, Tessa knows that she should take everything her roommate says about people’s names with a grain of salt. She knows that the name Scott left for her was probably the complete opposite of Batman and Robin, but she doesn’t even know what that name would be, so she decides to start with those two names anyway.

“Thanks, Kaitlyn. I’m going to go call and make sure that Scott is still there.”

Tessa gets to her room and closes and locks the door behind her. She sinks onto her bed and searches the number for the Ritz-Carlton. When she finds it, she only hesitates for a minute or so before pressing _call_.

Someone picks up on the second ring. “Hello, thank you for calling The Ritz-Carlton. This is Pamela, how can I help you?”

“Hi, my name is Tessa, and I’m calling to talk to someone named Batman.”

“I’m sorry, we don’t have anyone staying here by the name of Batman.” Pamela sounds like she’s trying to hold in her laughter, and Tessa’s stomach sinks.

_I’m never going to get to talk to Scott now_ , she can’t help but think.

“Okay, how about Robin?” she tries helplessly.

“Is this some kind of prank call?” Pamela demands.

“N–No, someone called for me a few days ago and said that they were staying at your hotel. You see, they left their name with my roommate, who isn’t the best at–”

“Try that guy from _The Jetson’s_ , the dad. I don’t remember his name,” Kaitlyn yells suddenly through her door. “Or Scooby-Doo.”

“The dad from _The Jetson’s_ ,” Tessa relays into the phone, “is that it? Or Scooby-Doo?”

She’s expecting laughter at the ridiculous name from the other end, but, to her relief, it never comes.

“Yes, we do have a Scooby-Doo staying here, I’ll transfer you right away.”

It takes a few seconds, during which Tessa can hear Kaitlyn’s footsteps retreat back to the kitchen, and she’s grateful.

She doesn’t even know what she’s going to say. _Hi, it’s the girl you spontaneously kissed after she spilled coffee all over you_ doesn’t seem like the greatest way to start a conversation.

“Hello?” Scott’s voice floats through the speaker, and Tessa’s mind goes blank for a second. She can’t even remember why she called.

“Hi, it’s Tessa. I work in that shoe store you visited the other day?”

“Yeah, hi, Tessa. I was wondering when you would call.”

“Sorry about that, my roommate has a really bad memory and couldn’t remember the name you’d left at the end of your phone call, and she waited until today to tell me that you called.”

He laughs, and she’s pretty sure that her heart skips a beat at the sound. 

Scott has the best laugh of anyone she’s ever heard, she decides.

“It’s just something I do, to keep my privacy. Last time I was Bert the chimney-sweep from _Mary Poppins_.”

She can’t help but laugh, and he continues talking.

“Are you free tonight?”

_Oh. He’s asking if I’m free, which means that he probably wants to see me._

“Yes,” she answers, smiling.

“Okay, awesome. Do you want to come here in an hour, we can order room service and talk or something? I can give you the address and my hotel room number, if you want.”

She feels herself smiling at the thought of the two of them hanging out and just talking. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

 

An hour later, Tessa finds herself standing in front of Scott’s hotel room, her heart beating so loudly she’s a little worried that it’s going to burst out of her chest. Her hand is poised to knock, but then someone opens it before she can do so.

“Um, hi,” she says, confused when the man that opens the door isn’t Scott. “I’m looking for Scott Moir, do I have the wrong room?”

“No,” a voice from Tessa’s right says, and she turns to see a woman standing next to her, the same woman that had been on the elevator with her moments beforehand. “Are you here for the press conference for Mr. Moir’s new movie?”

“It’s called _Splendid_ , and there was a special screening last night for members of the press. Who are you with, and what are your names?” the man who had answered the door asks them.

“I’m Kendra Morrison,” the woman from the elevator says, but Tessa is too busy thinking about how Scott hadn’t told her about the press conference that she doesn’t realize that Kendra has stopped talking and both her and the man are looking at her.

“I’m Tessa Virtue, and I . . .” She trails off, trying to find the words to explain to the two of them that she isn’t, in fact, here for a press conference for a movie that she definitely has not seen; she’s here because Scott and her are meeting for coffee. 

Then, she remembers that she’s expected to give some sort of name of a journal, and she spots a box of doughnuts just inside the room, so Tessa gives the first name that comes to mind.

She blinks, forces a smile. “Sorry, I’m Tessa Virtue, from ‘The Doughnut Review.’”

Kendra and the guy answering the door share a quizzical look but don’t say anything. Her and Kendra are handed booklets with the cover of the movie on it. The cover is a blown-up picture of Scott, who is wearing a chef’s hat and smiling widely. The word Splendid is in big font at the very bottom of the booklet.

Tessa has no idea what this movie is about, so when the man asks for their opinions about it, she’s glad Kendra speaks first.

“I thought the movie was charming, it was very cute and fun,” she states, and then she turns to Tessa with an encouraging smile.

“Um, yes. It was . . . cute, as Kendra has said, but I also liked the part about the cake, and when Sc – Mr. Moir’s character was teaching his mom how to frost a cake. I thought it was really heart-warming.”

“Did you . . . watch the movie?” Kendra asks in a hushed whisper after they’re left alone to wait for Scott to be done with his other interviews.

“Of course, what made you think I didn’t?” Tessa replies, as she decides that she definitely wants to be anywhere other than under the scrutiny of Kendra the Journalist.

“Well, Tessa . . . I hate to break it to you, but none of what you talked about just now actually happened in the movie.”

“A–Are you sure?” she stammers, trying to think of another lie quickly. “Maybe we saw two different showings that had another scene, maybe.”

Kendra smiles politely, and Tessa can tell right away that the other journalist doesn’t believe a word of what she’s just said. Tessa doesn’t either, to be perfectly honest.

“Sure, Tessa,” Kendra replies, and then she’s called in to interview Scott, so she leaves.

For ten whole minutes, Tessa fidgets in her chair and waits until her name is called, waits until she can finally “interview” Scott. 

She’s not sure that she’ll _actually_ get to interview him, since she’s talking to him about a movie that she hasn’t seen.

Those ten minutes are the longest ten minutes of her life.

“Tessa? Mr. Moir is ready for you,” the man who had answered the door and asked for her opinion on the movie calls.

She stands so quickly that her shoe somehow catches on the leg of her chair and it falls to the ground, knocking over the entire row of chairs next to it.

She inhales deeply to calm herself down. She’s nervous, and the fact that she’s just knocked over an entire row of chairs in front of a bunch of people that she doesn’t know definitely does nothing to calm her nerves. 

_Oh, this is just great_ , Tessa thinks, trying her best to calm down. _Perfect. I cannot_ believe _my luck right now._

“We’ll get it!” someone calls from the other side of the room, and Tessa offers a tight, embarrassed smile in return as she’s led away from the conference room, presumably to Scott.

“You have five minutes to talk to Mr. Moir," she's told, and she can't help but frown a little bit.

_Five minutes? That doesn’t seem like a lot_ , she thinks, but then she realizes that in order for every press person to get to talk to Scott, there has to be some sort of schedule.

She’s a little embarrassed that it took her almost twenty minutes of being here to realize that, of course, they’re all on some kind of schedule, but it’s not like she’s ever been to something like this.

“This is Tessa Virtue, from, uh, ‘The Doughnut Review,’” is how she’s introduced, and if the smirk on Scott’s face is anything to go by, he knows instantly that she made that name up.

_It isn’t very hard to tell_ , and, at that thought, almost laughs, but instead smiles back at him.

“Thanks, Evan,” Scott says, and Evan nods before turning to leave.

She expects the man to leave (and, by the lopsided grin he’s giving her, Scott is too), but he doesn’t. 

She knows that she only has five minutes, so she decides to go ahead and start asking him whatever questions she can think of. “So, um, Scott – Mr. Moir. In your latest film . . . Did any of the characters eat doughnuts?” 

“Nope,” he answers casually, popping the p as he leans back in his chair. 

“Really?” Tessa challenges, quirking an eyebrow as she smiles. “Not even one?” 

He grins. “Well, my character owned a pastry shop, which didn’t have doughnuts, so I’m afraid not.” 

“Well . . . If you were a doughnut, what kind of doughnut would you be?” 

He thinks for a moment, and she has to stop herself from apologizing for the absurdity of the question. 

“I’ve actually never had a doughnut before,” Scott answers, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck, and she suddenly wonders what on Earth she did to make him feel awkward.

She brushes that away as she blinks at him. “Wow. Okay. I’ve just never heard of anyone not having a doughnut before. Why haven’t you ever had one before?”

He shrugs. “I’m not too sure. I do like cake though.” 

Evan finally leaves, and both Tessa and Scott sigh in relief before bursting into laughter at the absurdity of the situation. 

“I’m sorry,” she starts, after they’ve stopped laughing, “I’m not really from ‘The Doughnut Review.’ I just kind of made that up. It all happened so fast, the man pushed this booklet into my hand and now here we are. I definitely thought we would get more time.” She admits that last part softly, looking past Scott, out the window.

“Tessa, it’s okay. I understand. I didn’t expect this to take this long, so I’m sorry. I also wanted to apologize about the kiss. I don’t . . . I’m not exactly sure what happened, and I hope you’ll forgive me.” 

She nods as she blinks away tears. Why is she so emotional right now? She has no reason to be. “Yes, of course, Scott. It’s honestly so unbelievable to be sitting in front of you again.” 

Scott tilts his head at her, his lips upturned in a smile. “Yeah, in what way? What did you expect to happen?”

Her cheeks grow warm, and she wants to look away again. She wants to, especially with what she’s thinking about, but finds that she can’t. His eyes are so captivating. _He_ is so captivating. 

“Well, if I was more confident and sitting closer to you, I would . . . I don’t know, honestly.”

Except that she does.

She wants to kiss him so badly that she can practically feel his lips on hers again. She can’t say any of that to him, because then that would make everything awkward, and she doesn’t even know when she’ll see him again, if she’ll see him again.

Before he can respond, Evan returns, and she’s ushered out. 

“Tessa?” Scott calls, which makes her turn around, makes her think that, for a split second, he’s going to somehow convince Evan to give her more time, to give them more time. 

She wishes that she was more confident, because then maybe she’d just ignore the fact that Evan is standing there, waiting to lead her out of the room, and then she might go over to Scott and kiss him like she’s thought about doing this entire interview.

It definitely did not feel like they had five minutes to talk to each other. It felt more like five seconds.

But, to her dismay, Scott doesn’t do any of that, and she doesn’t go over and kiss him.

He stands like he’s going to go over to her, and then catches Evan’s eye somewhere over her shoulder and sits back down.

“It was great to see you again,” he says simply, with a twinkle in his eye, and she feels a shiver snake its way down her spine as he repeats what she had said right after he kissed her. “Odd, but great.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, everyone! I'm so glad you enjoyed the first chapter, and hopefully you like this one, too!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa and Scott talk about their feelings after going to Tessa's sisters' birthday party.

After meeting with Scott, Evan, who Tessa learns is Scott’s publicist, tells her that there’s enough time for her to meet the other cast members of Scott’s movie. Since she’s genuinely interested in meeting Scott’s coworkers (even though she has no clue what she’s going to ask them), she says yes.

She’s rushed through interviewing his other cast members the same way that she was rushed through meeting Scott, but she can’t even think about that because her brain is so out of it after seeing him again. Also, she has no clue what to ask them because she hasn’t seen the movie in the first place. 

Adelaide, Scott’s love interest in the film, actually seems pretty cool. She’s the last cast member to be interviewed, and she’s funny, has a good fashion sense. From the little bit that Tessa talks to her, she feels like they would be good friends, and she can’t help but wonder whether Adelaide and Scott are friends.

She laughs at Tessa’s doughnut jokes and even tells some of her own, which Tessa very much appreciates. She feels like she has to keep up with these jokes because she supposedly works for a journal about doughnuts, but no one says anything, and she doesn’t tell them that she’s not really a journalist.

There’s a knock at the door at the end of Adelaide and Tessa’s five-minute interview, and Evan appears in the doorway.

“Mr. Moir wants to speak with you,” he tells her, and she stands, says goodbye to Adelaide before following Evan out of the room.

Her heart pounds furiously at the thought of seeing him again. She has no idea why she’s feeling this way; they’ve only met a few times, not to mention the fact that she kind of knew who he was beforehand.

 _Should I tell him that I kind of knew who he was before we met?_ she wonders, but then shakes her head to clear her mind of that thought. _No, he probably wouldn’t like that very much._

When they reach Scott’s room, he’s sitting on the couch, but stands when he sees Tessa. He nods at his publicist, who takes that as a cue to leave the room.

“So, Tessa. You’d asked earlier if I was doing anything tonight, and I had been, but those plans got cancelled. I told Evan that I still had a few questions for the best doughnut journalist around.” 

She can feel a blush creeping its way onto her cheeks, so she looks away from Scott. “Oh, wow. That’s really great. It’s just that, um, when I asked you, I’d forgotten that it was my sister’s birthday.” 

“Oh, okay. That sounds nice.” 

“I might be able to get out of it, if you want me to.” 

“No, I mean it sounds nice, as in, if you’ll have me, I’d like to come to your sister’s birthday party, as your date.” 

She stands, stunned, before answering, the phrase as your date turning over and over in her mind as she tries to figure out what it means. “Oh, right, of course. Jordan won’t mind, I’m sure.” 

The only reason Tessa knows that her sister won’t mind is because Jordan is probably the biggest Scott Moir fan that she knows. She has an entire Instagram page dedicated to his nose or something, Tessa can’t remember. It’s weird, and Jordan would probably be mortified if she knew that Tessa told him about it, so she doesn’t.

“It’s at my brother’s house. We could walk, it isn’t very far from here,” she explains.

He takes her hand and smiles at her, which makes her eyes widen in surprise.

She feels like time has frozen, mostly because she never in a million years imagined that something like this would be happening to her. Tessa wonders if there is a possibility that he likes her  
back. But, wait. She doesn’t even like him, not in that way.

_Do I?_

She thinks about it for a second, how she feels when she’s around him. Her heart is always fluttering furiously, almost as if it wants Scott to know how she feels. Not to mention she always just feels happy to be around him, and happy just when she thinks about him. When she thinks back to that kiss the first day that they met and how many times she’s wanted him to kiss her since then, she decides that she definitely, one-hundred percent has a crush on Scott Moir.

“Um, sorry if that’s not–” he says quickly, removing his hand from hers, which snaps her back to reality. 

She laces her fingers through his again and returns his smile. “It’s okay, Scott. It’s perfect.”

 

“So, did you know who I was when we met?” he asks, their joined hands swinging between them as they walk out of the hotel and onto the busy outside street.

“That depends,” she starts with a smirk. “Did you know who I was when we met?”

Scott laughs and stops walking. He turns to look at her, and she thinks that he looks especially handsome in the dark, outlined by the glowing moon and the soft amber of the streetlamps.

“I wish I did.” There’s a look on his face that she can’t quite place. His voice is low and sincere; his eyes are soft, shining with something akin to wonder.

Tessa feels like they are the only two people on this street right now, and she gazes up at him with a small smile. She untangles her hand from his, and, at his look of surprise as he scrambles to reach for her hand again, places the hand that he was holding on his cheek before pressing her lips to his. 

Scott smiles into the kiss, sets his hands on her waist as she threads her arms around his neck.

Everything is perfect for a moment, time is still as they kiss and kiss.

“Tessa,” he breathes out eventually, and she opens her eyes to see him looking at her, the light in his eyes having dimmed as he gives her a strained smile. “As much as I want to, we can’t. Not here. What if someone sees us? They’ll . . . I don’t even know what they would do, and since I don’t know what we are, I don’t want the press to get any wind of this. Of us. Then our . . . friendship, eventual relationship, won’t just be ours anymore, it’ll be ours and the public’s.”

She sighs, nodding as she pulls away from him. Even though some of what he’s just said hurts her, she knows that he’s right. This is too fragile for anyone but them to know about it. That being said, she wants that. She wants to date Scott, wants people to know about it, and then they’ll deal with what the public, the media, have to say together.

“Please,” he tells her, although it sounds more like plead, “don’t be mad at me. I don’t want the media to–”

“I understand, Scott,” she responds in a tone that suggests that they aren’t done talking about this. “Can we just . . . talk about this later? I want us to have a good time at Jordan’s party.”

An easy smile slips onto his face, although if she were to look him in the eye right now, she would see the worry that lingers there. “Of course.”

 

When they reach Kevin’s, Tessa’s brother, house, her and Scott stand on the front step for a moment before she can bring herself to knock.

“Are you okay, Tessa?”

She turns to Scott, who looks like he’s thinking that going to this party might be either a very good or very bad idea, and he can’t decide which.

“Yeah,” she answers, “I guess I should have warned you that my family can be a little crazy.”

“It’s okay, I can deal with crazy. I deal with it in my professional life all the time.”

It takes Kevin a little while to come to the door after she knocks.

 _Don’t be nervous_ , she tells herself, _it’s just your family. And . . . Scott, who they only know because he’s been on their TV. And who you’ve known for only a few days, but haven’t told anyone about._

 _Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to bring him here_ is the next thought that pops into her head, but then Kevin opens the door and there’s nothing she can do about it.

He greets them, shakes Scott’s hand politely and doesn’t ask too many questions.

When they get inside, Casey, Tessa’s other brother, is seated around the table, and someone else is noticeably absent from the table, someone who Tessa thinks should probably be there.

“We’re still waiting on Jordan,” Casey explains, as if he’s read her mind. “You know that she’s always late, so we’ve told her to be here at six so that she would actually get here at seven. Who’ve you brought, Tessa?”

“This is Scott,” she says with a tight smile, as Scott and Casey wave at each other.

“You look familiar,” Casey comments, and Kevin tilts his head in thought as the other three sit down.

“You do,” Kevin agrees, “Where have I seen you before, Scott?”

Thankfully, Scott is saved from answering by the door opening, so quickly that it hits against the wall, and Jordan comes gracelessly into the dining room, practically tripping over her own feet.

“Sorry I’m late!” she chirps, and Tessa’s eyes widen at her sister’s choice of outfit.

She’s wearing a rainbow-striped long-sleeved shirt with real, actual balloons pinned to it, and she’s paired it with a long, flowing black skirt.

“Jordan, that’s definitely an interesting outfit to celebrate your birthday,” Casey tells his sister, getting up to give her a hug.

“Isn’t it? Oh, I just love it so much! I made it myself,” Jordan states proudly, as if the shirt she’s wearing isn’t the most hideous thing Tessa has ever seen.

“It’s definitely unique,” she tells her sister, who turns to her, beaming.

“Tessa! How are you? I haven’t seen you in so long! I keep meaning to drop by the shop to see you and Marie-France, but I’ve just been so busy lately, so I haven’t had much time.”

Jordan’s eyes drift over to Scott, who’s sitting next to Tessa, and she lets out such a high-pitched squeal that everyone at the table has to cover their ears.

“ _Scott Moir_ is at my birthday party? Oh, T, this is the best present _ever_! How did you manage that?”

Tessa, who has just taken a sip of water, lets out a sound that’s somewhere between a laugh and a cough before she answers her sister. “Scott and I are friends.”

To her horror, Jordan laughs loudly. “How did you even meet? There’s no way that you two are friends.”

“We are, actually,” Scott speaks up, “But tonight isn’t about Tessa and I, it’s about you, so let’s focus on that, okay? Happy birthday, Jordan.”

“I have an Instagram account for your nose,” she blurts out, laughing before she covers her mouth as she realizes what she’s just said, “You weren’t supposed to know about that.”

Tessa’s thankful that Scott doesn’t say anything, just smiles politely.

 

Throughout dinner, Jordan keeps sneaking glances at Scott as if she can’t quite believe that he’s sitting at her birthday dinner. If Tessa is honest, she can’t really believe it, either.

They’ve moved onto dessert when there’s an insistent knocking at the door, and then it flies open. Jordan’s ex-boyfriend, Darren, stumbles into the dining room, obviously drunk with the way  
that he runs into the wall and then falls into the empty chair next to Tessa.

“Hey, guys,” he slurs, and Tessa moves her chair farther from his and, as a result, closer to Scott’s.

“What are you doing here?” Jordan asks, horrified, as she stands up from the table.

“I came to wish you a happy birthday, Jordan.”

“Darren, we broke up, like, six months ago. How did you even know that we were here?”

“That may be my fault,” Kevin admits guiltily. “I posted an invite to Facebook, and I forgot Darren and I were still friends on there. I didn’t think anyone would actually respond to it. I’m sorry, Jordan.”

In the end, it takes an hour to get Darren to leave, and by that time, Jordan is so upset by the whole thing that she leaves without saying goodbye to anyone.

“That was kind of a disaster,” Charlie tells them, and Kevin puts his head in his hands.

“I’m sorry, you guys. Tonight was supposed to be fun, and then it turned into . . . this.”

“It’s okay,” Charlie says as Tessa and Scott both nod, “However, I should probably get going now. I have to be at work early.”

“Yeah,” Tessa agrees with a look at Scott, “We should get going, too. But thank you so much for having us, Kev, even if tonight didn’t go how you wanted it.”

 

When Tessa and Scott get outside, he instantly takes her hand.

“I’m sorry about my sister,” she says, “She can be . . . a bit much, sometimes.”

To her relief, Scott smiles. “It’s okay, I thought she was funny, even if the fact that she runs an Instagram account for my nose. Like, what is so special about my nose?”

This makes Tessa laugh, and she pokes his nose. “I don’t know. I mean, it is a cute nose, I think. As cute as a nose can be, that is. Is this weird?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Scott answers, “As long as me telling you your eyes are stunning isn’t weird.”

His voice has the same quiet tone as it did just before the birthday party, right before Tessa kissed him.

She’d rather not think about that, so she doesn’t answer, just smiles at him without looking at him.

“Tessa,” Scott says, still in that same quiet voice, and she feels the tug as their hands stay joined, even as he stops walking and she continues walking. “Look at me.”

“What do you want to say, Scott?” she bursts out, taking a second before she turns around. “That you think we should just be friends? Because, frankly, I don’t think friends kiss each other! That isn’t normal friend behavior!”

She’s exasperated, and he lets her talk before trying to calm her down.

“I don’t think we should just be friends,” he admits quietly, and she opens her mouth to ask him what exactly he means, but he continues. “I know, I said that before dinner. But the truth is, Tessa, I was scared. I am scared. I haven’t been in a relationship since my career took off, for a number of reasons. I hadn’t found the right girl, and I was too scared to put something so private out into the world.”

He steps closer to her, close enough that he takes both of her hands in his. “But, since I met you, something in me changed. Suddenly, I’ve realized that there’s a balance between my personal and private lives, between what I can and cannot showcase on social media. If you . . . if you want to date me, Tessa, then I won’t plaster our relationship on social media for the world to see. If you want this, because trust me, I do, then I promise I’ll never treat you like you are anything less than what you are. I’ll never barge into your life, like how Darren did tonight with your sister. But, it’s entirely up to you, Tess. I’m not going to try to change–”

She closes the distance between them, her hands still in his, and then she leans forward and touches her lips to his, for the second time that night.

“Is that a yes?” Scott mumbles hopefully as he kisses her, a teasing lilt to his voice.

“Yes,” she breathes, smiling into the kiss, “That’s definitely a yes, Scott. To all of it.”

 _To everything_ , she thinks, and then he pulls away, too soon.

Tessa leans up to kiss him again, but he shakes his head.

“Come on, Tessa. There’s somewhere I want you to see.”

Scott leads her down the sidewalk a little ways to a park, a large fountain situated in the front. It’s very grandiose, with a statue that Tessa doesn’t recognize in the dark, and she can see coins sparkling at the bottom of it when she and Scott look into it.

“Did you know,” Scott starts, as he wraps his arm around her shoulders and pulls her close, “That if you throw a penny into a fountain, it’s supposed to bring you good luck?”

Tessa can’t help but laugh. “Yes, Scott. I’m pretty sure everyone knows that.”

“Want to test it out?”

“No,” she laughs, as she kisses him quickly, “because I think I’ve been pretty lucky recently, don’t you?”

He nods, then smirks as he wiggles his eyebrows. “Tessa.”

The softness of his voice sends a shiver down her spine, and he must notice, because he grins at her.

“What?” she asks, grinning back.

“Do you . . . want to come back to my hotel with me?” he asks, looking at the ground instead of her.

The silence that follows that is thick and awkward, with Tessa not knowing how to answer.

“Not like that,” he’s quick to add and then he finally looks at her., and when she looks over at him, she sees a boyish grin lighting up his features. “Just to hang out.”

“Okay,” she agrees with a smile. She feels like she’s been smiling a lot recently, knows that it’s because of Scott.

 

They reach his hotel room a little while later, and when he opens the door, Tessa is positive her heart skips a beat.

Adelaide, Scott’s co-star in their new movie that Tessa interviewed the both of them for just that morning, is sitting on the edge of his bed in a very pretty knee-length dress, and she smiles when she sees him.

She doesn’t even notice Tessa standing beside him as she pecks his cheek and whispers about how much she missed him into his ear.

Tessa swallows hard, feels like she was about to cry. Adelaide and Scott are hugging now, and he’s looking anywhere but at Tessa.

She wishes he would look at her.

 _It looks like they’re a lot more than friends_ , she realizes with a start, even though Scott never said that they were or weren’t. They could’ve been dating this whole time and she wouldn’t have even known, because she’s known Scott for only a few days and has gone into this thing with him, whatever it is, solely based on how she feels about him.

She hasn’t once logically thought about the situation; about how ridiculous it is that she’s agreed to date him after not even having the chance to go on a single date.

Tessa Virtue doesn’t do spontaneity; this weekend had been a whirlwind of Scott Moir and it won’t happen again. She won’t let it; now she’ll keep her heart guarded, locked up without a sense of where the key is.

She doesn’t know how she could’ve been so stupid as to open her heart so easily, hadn’t known how she was falling for someone so quickly without even thinking about him being in a relationship as being in the realm of possibility. But, why would she? He had the one that kissed her that very first day, and then later again a few more times today.

She leaves the room without a word, only letting herself cry once she reaches the hallway.

Footsteps sound behind her, which makes her sprint for the elevator without even thinking about who it is that’s behind her.

“Tessa, wait!” Scott calls, but she doesn’t stop. She reaches the elevator but he’s only a step or two behind her, close enough that he reaches out and shoves his hand in the elevator to stop the door from closing. He succeeds, and the door closes behind him, leaving her with him on the elevator.

“It’s not what it looks like, you have to believe me,” he tells her, out of breath from running down the hallway after her.

“I have a pretty clear idea of what it was, Scott, and I’m not obligated to listen to anything you have to say. You’re an actor, which means that you lie to people for a living. You put on this façade, this character, and ask people to suspend their disbelief for a few hours. How do I know you aren’t lying to me?”

“Adelaide and I were set up to be in a relationship as a marketing tactic, but it isn’t real. The belief was that if people thought that the films two stars were in a relationship, it would make them come see the movie. Tessa, I’m not with Adelaide, not like I am with you. She doesn’t make me laugh, doesn’t make me feel like I do when I’m around you. I’m the realist version of myself when I’m with you–”

The elevator dings and opens its doors to the lobby, interrupting what he’s saying.

“Quite frankly, I don’t know how I’m supposed to believe you. I don’t do anything like this, Scott. I don’t have crushes on, or even really kiss, guys within the first few days of meeting them. I haven’t had a boyfriend since college, because he cheated on me, which made me realize that I didn’t really love him, and I’ve spent the years in-between then and now feeling all sorts of guilt.”

Tessa pauses to take a few deep breaths. “You kept a secret from me, Scott, which isn’t quite as bad as cheating, but it still makes me question how much I can trust you. I can’t . . . I can’t do this right now, I’m sorry.”

And with that, she steps into the lobby and somehow makes it outside before she starts to cry again.

 

When she gets home, Kaitlyn is there, sitting on the couch. She looks up when Tessa walks in.

“Hey, where have you been? I haven’t seen you in what feels like forever,” her roommate comments, but immediately stops talking once she realizes that Tessa is crying. “Whoa, what’s wrong, T?”

She sinks into the spot on the couch next to Kaitlyn and tells her everything. Throughout everything, Kaitlyn doesn’t interrupt her once, except to get up and grab the two pints of ice cream from the freezer.

“The worst part is, I let myself trust him. I let myself believe his stupidly charming smile and his stupidly beautiful words. I can’t believe it, I should’ve known something like this would happen.”

“Tessa,” Kaitlyn starts gently, handing her the ice cream and a spoon, “As much as you probably don’t want to hear this, you had no reason not to trust him! How were you supposed to know that he and his co-star were fake dating as a means to sell tickets to their movie?”

“I guess I wasn’t,” she mumbles.

“Exactly. Plus, I’ve noticed you’ve been happy these past few days, and I knew something was up. I didn’t know specifically what it was, but I knew that _ma petite chaussure_ hasn’t been doing well lately, so you’ve been kind of down; but, since you’ve met Scott, Tess, you’ve been happier and smiling for no reason. I’m not saying your mood has changed because of him, but I think it doesn’t hurt that you’ve met and have been spending a lot of time together. It also wouldn’t hurt to hear him out on what he has to say, because he obviously didn’t think that fake-dating his co-star wasn’t a big enough deal that he didn’t have to tell you. Which might not have been the best way to go about it, but that’s what he did. Just sleep on it and maybe talk to him tomorrow or sometime in the near-future, if you’re feeling up to it.”

“I don’t know, Kaitlyn. I just don’t know why he wouldn’t mention something like this to me. He didn’t even say anything to me once he saw her in his room, he ran after me and explained it on the elevator! Is it bad that I want to hear what he has to say, but I also don’t?”

“Not at all, Tess. There’s obviously something between the two of you. And I’m going to contradict you on what you said earlier: it’s _okay_ that you and Scott have only known each other for a few days and you’ve agreed to date him. Or, well, you did before this whole Adelaide thing happened. It’s not like you’re getting married or anything. From the way your face lit up while you were talking about him, even if it was unintentional, there’s something there.”

“What else can he be hiding, though?”

“That’s why you should talk to him. He had a good reason for his co-star being in his room, but I think you were just so surprised after seeing her there and him not tell you, that you didn’t stop to think that he might be right. Now, I’m not taking his side or anything, but I don’t know that he’s hiding anything. Just trust your gut.”

“Right. I’ll think about it and decide in the morning. Thanks, Kaitlyn, I really needed to talk to you about this, and thanks for listening. For now, though, I’m going to sleep. Good night.”

“Good night, Tessa. Try not to overthink everything happening with Scott,” her roommate tells her with a small smile.

Tessa climbs into bed a few minutes later and falls into a dreamless sleep.

 

When she gets to his hotel room’s door the next morning after having woken up and decided that she wants to hear what she has to say, she knocks a few times and waits for an answer.

“Hey,” she starts, once the door is open, without even looking up to make sure that he’s standing in front of her. “I’m really sorry about last night and I was wondering if we could talk about it?”

“Um, do I know you?” A man’s voice asks that isn’t Scott’s, which makes Tessa’s head snap up.

She checks to make sure she’s standing in front of his room. A quick look at the number on the wall indicates that, yes, she is. However, when she meets the man’s eyes, she sees that he’s not Scott, and a deep sinking feeling settles in her stomach.

“N-No,” she stammers. “But, my boy – my _friend_ is staying here, in this room. His name is Scott.”

The man shakes his head and starts to close the door. “I’m sorry, I don’t know of any Scott’s.”

“Oh. Well, thanks, anyway.”

Tessa feels dizzy as she walks to the elevator. She doesn’t know what to do or how to contact him now, because Scott’s left, probably because they’d gotten into a fight.

Now she doesn’t know if she’ll ever see him again, and the thought makes her want to cry again as she walks back to her apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even though this chapter was . . . a lot, I hope you still liked it! I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that things do get better from here! :) Does anyone think Tessa was wrong to just run away from Scott despite the fact that he explained the situation? Let's talk about it in the comments!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa and Scott meet again for the first time in seven months.

Over the next six months, Tessa throws herself into being the best shoe saleswoman the world has ever seen and tries to forget about Scott Moir.

She’ll be the first to admit that it isn’t easy. Not when what feels like everyone who comes into the store is talking about him and his latest movie, Splendid, which just makes her think about how she interviewed him and his cast. How they went to her sister’s birthday party and, after, he’d told her how he wanted to be with her and no one else, and she had believed him.

How he had kissed her, and she opened up her heart to him, for him, because she wanted to. And then, she’ll think about everything that came after: seeing Adelaide, his co-star, and assuming that the two were dating and Scott hadn’t wanted to tell her. Apparently, she was wrong, at least according to Scott. He’d told her about how his and Adelaide’s relationship was just a marketing plot to sell more tickets to their upcoming movie.

Every so often, she’ll check how the movie is doing, Google it, maybe. 

_Just to see what people are saying_ , she tells herself, despite knowing deep down that that’s a lie.

She’s realized that she overreacted that night, that she probably shouldn’t have just left without letting him explain himself.

Tessa still can’t believe that he was gone when she went to talk to him the next morning, can’t believe that she has so many things to tell him and no way to contact him.

Yes, there is social media, except for the fact that she’s never used it so she’s not about to make an account in the hopes of talking to him.

So, no, there isn’t a way that she can contact Scott Moir, but as the months drag on and Kaitlyn and Jordan try to set her up on more and more unsuccessful dates she thinks that maybe it’s for the best.

The dates that she’s gone on have been so unsuccessful that it makes her never want to go on another date ever again. The last guy just talked about how he was upset over something that happened at his family’s Thanksgiving dinner two years ago. She’d sat and listened to him talk for almost two hours before claiming to need to use the restroom.

Tessa had gotten up from that table and, instead of going to the bathroom as she’d said, she headed straight for the door, left without looking back.

The problem isn’t that the guys aren’t interesting. It isn’t even that she wouldn’t be into them, before Scott.

The problem is that now that she’s been with Scott, now that she knows what it feels like to fall in love for real (even though she still thinks it’s somewhat crazy), she doesn’t think that she can date anyone but him. She knows that it’s stupid to be waiting for someone who will probably never come around again.

“T, are you feeling okay? You’ve been kind of, I don’t know . . . mopey over the last few months?” Kaitlyn asks one night as the two are sitting on the couch, watching TV.

“Yeah,” she answers softly, not looking at her roommate.

As soon as the episode they’re watching ends, Tessa turns to Kaitlyn, fiddling nervously with her hands.

“Okay, I lied before. I’m just upset that Scott left before I got the chance to talk to him.”

“Tessa, you can’t beat yourself up over what happened. It’s not entirely your fault–”

“But I definitely said some things that were kind of mean. I would leave town if someone said those to me, too, just like he did. The thing is, Kaitlyn, I didn’t mean it. I was just angry, because he hadn’t told me about Adelaide. I didn’t have a reason not to believe him when he said that they weren’t really dating, but I didn’t have a reason to believe him, either. Why is this so complicated?”

“I think you’re just making it complicated. More-so than it needs to be. Is there anything you can do about it right this second?”

“Well, no, but I–”

“Exactly. Just, try not to think about it.”

 _That’s terrible advice,_ Tessa can’t help but think. _All I_ do _is think about him_.

 

She’s at work a month later when she first hears of the rumors.

They’ve come in on a Monday, the one day a week that the shop is closed, to sort through their new inventory and rearrange the shelves.

“Do you watch the morning news, Tessa?” her boss asks, just after the two get back from their lunch break.

“Not usually, no; why?”

At this, Marie-France shifts uncomfortably. “I saw an episode from a few months ago, from an actor who's movie Patch and I just saw, and, well, are there . . . Have there been, um, any guys in your life recently? Have you ever met a famous person?”

“What an odd bunch of questions. There was a famous actor that came into the store a few months ago, and we kind of hit it off.” _Maybe kissed a few times_ , she adds in her head, but then shakes it to clear it of that thought. “But it didn’t end up working out, and I haven’t seen him since. What’s going on?”

Without answering her question or acknowledging any of her answers, Tessa’s boss shuffles over to the desktop computer, gesturing for her to follow.

She’s horrified when, a few seconds later, a clip from some episode of the morning news is playing on the screen.

Featuring none other than one Scott Moir.

He and the host, Lauren, are sitting across from each other, and, well, considering Tessa hasn’t seen him in a little over seven months, she’s a little shocked that this is the first time she’s seeing him.

Instantly, her palms begin to sweat, and she has to wipe them on her jeans. Her heart races, but there’s nothing she can do about that.

She tells herself to calm down, but then, Lauren starts talking.

 _“So, you were in Canada several months ago, as part of the press tour for your new movie_ , Splendid, _right?”_

He looks tired, she notes. 

Maybe that’s because he’s been busy touring for his movie for the last few months, but it could also be for another reason entirely, one she doesn’t want to think about.

Tessa’s stomach sinks; she knows what’s coming, yet she needs to hear it. Maybe it’ll offer her some closure.

 _“Yeah,”_ Scott answers casually, folding his arms across his chest.

She expects him to smile, at least a little bit, and is surprised when he doesn’t.

_“There were reports that you have a girlfriend, can you share anything about it?”_

_“I don’t . . . I don’t have a girlfriend. There was this girl in Canada, and I thought that we would become something, but it ended up not working out.”_

_“Was her name Tessa? There have been rumors about the two of you.”_

At this, Scott bristles, and Tessa feels like she’s going to throw up.

Not only are there reports, _rumors_ even, about them, but now her name is said on national television. Not her full name, thankfully, but she’s sure that if she were to Google _Scott Moir and Tessa_ , all of the results would be wondering about the status of their relationship, would be wondering who she is and why she isn’t with Scott.

He nods, and Tessa blinks, remembering the night of Jordan’s birthday party (it seems like a lifetime ago now, if she’s completely honest); how they were walking before he asked her to be his girlfriend. How they kissed in the middle of the empty street, and Tessa could have cared less who saw them in that minute, because she was just so happy.

She thinks back to how she felt that night; how she thought that if she kissed Scott every day for the rest of their lives, she wouldn’t be upset about it. She knew that she was falling for him, fast, unlike she had for anyone ever before that. She’d thought that he felt the same, because he had told her that he did, before they got to his hotel room, to where Adelaide was waiting.

 _“Sometimes things don’t work out the way we want them to,”_ Scott replies, not answering the question directly, suggesting that he doesn't necessarily believe what he's saying, _“but it’s okay, because life goes on.”_

Tessa finds herself nodding along with what he’s saying, even as tears well up in her eyes.

 _“So, you’re not dating?”_ Lauren questions, and Scott shakes his head with a rueful smile.

_“No. Maybe someday, but not right now. It’s just not our time yet, and maybe our paths won’t cross again any time soon, which is okay. I think we both have some growing and changing to do, and if we’re going to get together someday, we need to go about it the right way. That is, what’s right for us, not what’s right for the public or the media. That goes with any relationship, not just the one that we’re referring to.”_

Lauren asks him another question after that, but she’s stopped paying attention.

He was right, even though he might not believe it; if they’re ever going to date, they have to do what’s best for them, not what’s best for anyone else.

Marie-France pauses the video and glances over at Tessa.

“So, Tessa.”

“Listen, I can explain.”

She tells the story of her and Scott, from the beginning to the end. It takes much longer than she thought it would, but her boss stays silent while she’s talking. She talks about that first day, how Scott had come into the store, and then, when she saw him later, the fact that she spilled coffee all over the two of them. She’d felt so bad about it, but she’d stopped feeling guilty once he had kissed her.

Tessa isn’t entirely sure that she should be telling her boss all of this. But, then again, Marie-France has always been more like a grandmother to her than a boss.

She starts to cry when she gets to talking about the night of Jordan’s birthday party, and the events that happened after. The park, the hotel, seeing Adelaide there in Scott’s room, and then, later, him running after her as he’d insisted that Adelaide wasn’t his girlfriend, that he wasn’t keeping secrets from her. Marie-France hands her a tissue as she talks about how she didn’t believe him, how she isn’t sure if she should at all, not after seeing that interview.

Quietly, she admits that she had been starting to fall in love with Scott, which scared her. It scared her because what they had seemed so perfect, until it all fell apart. She had never felt the way that she did about him, and she isn’t sure that she’ll feel that way about anyone ever again.

“My one shot at real true love can’t end in heartbreak, can it?” Tessa asks once she’s finished telling the story. She wipes at her eyes with a tissue, but the tears don’t stop.

“From what you’ve told me and from what we just watched in that interview, it doesn’t seem like yours and Scott’s relationship is over. I don’t think that chapter of your love life is finished, Tessa. He looked to upset over it, and it’s obvious to me that you regret the things that you said. Do you feel like there’s more to be shared between the two of you?”

She doesn’t even hesitate to answer yes, which makes her cry even harder. 

She’d never known that loving someone could hurt so much, because, in that moment, it’s very clear to her that she’s still in love with him.

Looking at Scott’s frozen image on the desktop screen in front of her, she thinks that there’s a small chance that he might be in love with her, too. 

It wasn’t clear before, because they had just met, but it is now.

And she wants to do something about it; she can’t just let him go.

 

Tessa is shaken awake later that night to find Kaitlyn standing over her, her eyes wide and smiling, even in the darkness of the room.

“What?” she asks groggily, not opening her eyes. “It can’t already be morning, Kaitlyn. It feels like I just went to bed an hour ago. I don’t want to wake up yet; please don’t make me.”

“Tessa,” her roommate whispers harshly, and there’s the click of her bedside lamp turning on.

Her room is bathed in warm light, leaving her no chance but to open her eyes. 

A glance at the clock tells her that it’s almost two in the morning.

“Why is Scott Moir standing in our living room?” Kaitlyn asks in the same tone.

“He's . . ." she breathes out, before shaking her head. "I don’t, I don’t know.”

And it’s true; she hasn’t heard from him in a long time, wasn’t _expecting_ to hear from him for a long time, not after watching that interview.

“I think you’d better go do something about that, Tess. He looked very tired and very nervous.”

With a sigh, she swings her legs over the side of the bed, stands and takes a moment to stretch. After muttering an _I’ll be right back_ to Kaitlyn, she wanders down the stairs to the living room.

“Scott,” she greets as she turns the corner into the living room, and then she realizes that she’s not looking as presentable as she pictured whenever she thought about their next meeting. She’s wearing fuzzy pajama pants and a t-shirt, not to mention the fact that her hair hangs loose around her face, falling just below her shoulders.

 

He’s sitting on the couch, but he stands instantly when he sees her.

“Tessa, hi. I’m really sorry about . . . well, not only about waking up you and Kaitlyn, but also about everything. Did you see the interview?”

She eyes him warily, dropping down into the armchair across from the couch, waves at him to sit as well. “I saw the one you did with Lauren on the morning news, was there another one?”

Honestly, she doesn’t mean to be so rude. However, she’s very tired and she doesn’t know why he’s shown up here, unannounced, on a Saturday night, seven months after they first met, with no explanation or reason as to why he’s here. At least, if there is one, he hasn’t given it yet. Then she realizes that he couldn’t have possibly warned her that he was coming because they have no way to contact each other.

 _We’ll have to fix that_ , she thinks as she waits for him to start talking.

“No,” he responds, scratching the back of his neck, “It was just that one.”

“Did you come here in the middle of the night just to ask me if I’d seen an interview that you did a few months ago?”

He blinks at her. “What did you think about it?”

“I think you were right; it wasn’t our time yet. Not then, at least. But, Scott, I’ve missed you, and I can’t help but feel like this was all just one big miscommunication. If you want to, you can spend the night here and we’ll talk about this in the morning. I don’t want to get into it right now, just because I know that we’re both very tired and it won’t do either of us any favors.”

Scott only smiles at her and Tessa can feel herself start to blush. 

She’s suddenly not feeling very angry with him anymore.

“I read once that it’s not good to go to bed while you’re in a fight with someone,” he tells her softly.

“If that’s really the case, then I would’ve been up for the past seven months. Besides, I think that’s only if you’re married, which . . .” She trails off at that, before standing with a small smile. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to grab some pillows and a blanket. Is there anything else you need?”

He shakes his head. “No, thank you, though.”

“You’re welcome.”

She finds Kaitlyn still in her room, standing in the same spot she had been when she’d left.

“What’s up?” she asks.

Kaitlyn blinks, as if she’d been zoned out the whole time that Tessa was downstairs talking to Scott. “Oh, nothing. Is Scott here?”

“Yeah, he’s going to spend the night and then we’re going to talk about everything in the morning, if that’s alright?”

She realizes then that she didn’t even ask Kaitlyn if it was okay.

“Of course. Tessa, I think this is good. The two of you need to talk. No offense, but it was making me really sad to see how sad you were about this whole thing, so I think that talking about it can only be good. Unless he confesses that he’s now dating Adelaide or something.” 

She pauses at the look on her roommate’s face. “Which I don’t think happened, so don’t worry about it. Seriously, I shouldn’t have even mentioned it.”

Tessa grabs some sheets, a blanket and a pillow out of her closet before turning to face Kaitlyn. “It’s okay, Kaitlyn. Honestly, I think Scott and I are going to be just fine.”

Kaitlyn nods. “Now, I’m going to head back to sleep, because I have to work really early tomorrow morning. I guess now that it’s early morning, that is technically today.”

Tessa laughs as she and Kaitlyn walk out of her room. “Goodnight, Kaitlyn.”

“Goodnight, Tessa. Everything going to be just fine between you and Scott.”

Just as she’s walking down the stairs, she hears Kaitlyn’s door close.

“Here, these are for you,” she tells Scott as she hands him the pile of sheets and blankets.

He smiles at her. “Thanks, Tessa. Have a goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

 

Tessa’s alarm goes off later that morning, and she forces herself to get up. She knows that Kaitlyn’s already left for work, which means that Scott is either still asleep or just sitting on her couch alone. She wonders if he’s awake, and then feels bad for sleeping until her alarm, but she knows that she shouldn’t. He didn’t have to come here at two in the morning if he really didn’t want to.

Fortunately, he’s still asleep when she reaches the living room, his mouth open wide as he snores lightly. His arm and one of his legs hang over the side of the couch.

He stirs for a second once she moves them back onto the couch, but he doesn’t wake up.

She takes this opportunity to get started on breakfast. 

It’s about half an hour later (just as she’s pouring eggs into the skillet to be scrambled) that she hears him pad into the kitchen.

“Good morning,” she tells him, without turning around. 

He stops once he’s next to her, just in the line of her peripheral vision.

“Morning, Tessa,” he rasps, his voice heavy and husky with sleep.

She stops pouring the eggs when she hears him talk, stares at him with wide eyes.

It takes her a second, because she never took the time to think about how Scott’s voice sounds in the morning and how much that would make her want to kiss him immediately.

He sees that she’s stopped and leans over, pours the rest of the eggs into the skillet.

“You okay?”

She swallows hard, wills herself to _stop thinking about kissing him, Tessa_. “Yeah.”

“So, listen. About last night. I’m really sorry about how I came here in the middle of the night and woke both of you up. But I guess I should tell you that it’s not only because I wanted to apologize to you, I also came here because . . .”

She turns to look at him, and concern is clear on her face. “Why?”

“Well, filming on my next project is halted, so I don’t know if I’ll even be able to film it now, just because my schedule is so planned out that I didn’t prepare for something like this.”

“Filming was halted? Why?”

He shrugs. “I’m not sure; I think the script writer and the director got into a feud about something, so now they need to find either a script writer or a director.”

“I’m sorry,” she tells him awkwardly, not really knowing what else to say.

There’s a silence as she divides the eggs onto two plates, hands one to Scott without saying anything.

He breaks the silence after they’ve been sitting at the table for a little while. “Would now be a bad time to bring up what happened seven months ago?”

 _I don’t think there’s ever going to be a good time_ , she can’t help but think, but instead of saying that, she shakes her head.

“No, we should talk about it, especially if we want things to go back to normal.”

At her words, his face lights up. He looks as if he’s been waiting for her to say that for the past seven months.

“Right. I should apologize firstly, because I had meant to tell you everything with Adelaide, but I just . . . Everything happened so fast, and it slipped my mind, honestly.”

Scott sees the frown and the crease of her eyebrows, knows that he said something wrong. “What?”

She takes a deep breath, almost as if she doesn’t want to tell him. “It just . . . really doesn’t make me feel better about this whole situation that you forgot to tell me how you and your co-star were in a fake relationship for the movie.”

He blinks. “I’m sorry, Tessa. I just didn’t think it was that important.”

Her fork drops from her hand and hits her plate with a glassy clang. She stares at him, folds her hands together before she sets her chin on them.

“Okay,” is all she says, the word hanging sharp and quiet in the air.

“Okay?”

She stands from the table, brings their dirty dishes and cups to the sink without another word.

It doesn’t take him long to realize that she never answered his question.

“You know,” he tells her as he comes up beside her while she loads the dishwasher, “if you don’t want me here, if you don’t want to talk about this, I can just leave.”

There’s a _Fine_ creeping up the back of her throat, but she knows that if he leaves, she’ll definitely never see him again, and, as a result, never get to tell him how she feels.

Tessa doesn’t even want to be feeling this way towards him; she wishes she could lean up and kiss him, tangle her fingers in his hair as they stand in her kitchen. If she did that, however, this problem (the one that she can’t help but feel she’s making into a bigger deal than it is) would still be hanging between them, and, in all honesty, probably keep the two from enjoying the kiss.

So, she shakes her head slightly and holds up her index finger, to indicate to him _hold that thought, just one more second_ as she finishes loading the dishwasher and grabs his hand, leads him through the apartment and to the living room. She drops his hand just before she sits down but grabs it again to tug him down beside her.

“It’s taken me a little while to figure out how to phrase what I’m about to say next, just because I don’t want to sound selfish or anything. It really hurts me that you didn’t tell me about Adelaide, even after I told you that my first and so far, only, boyfriend cheated on me. It was really hard for me to get over, and I think there are parts of me that still don’t trust people because of that. It’s not just you; I’ve never liked having secrets between people that I want to be close with, that I want to . . . that I think I could someday seriously be in love with.”

She looks at him to gauge his reaction, and when she meets his gaze, he can see fear present behind her eyes.

 _How could anyone ever cheat on you?_ he wants to ask, and when he pictures himself saying it, it’s soft and sincere, something he believes with every fiber of his being.

But he knows that there’s a time and a place for questions like that, and this is neither of those things, so he comes up with something else to say, something else that will let her know how he feels about her. To let her know that she can feel safe with him, that she can tell him anything. 

“I’m here, and I’m not going anywhere,” he says softly with a gentle smile, and it’s only when he squeezes her hand that she realizes neither of them let go in the first place. “I just wanted to remind you of that. Take as long as you need to tell this story, because it’s something very important to you, that means a lot to you. This is something that I shouldn’t have been so careless with.”

Tessa nods, not really knowing what else to say. He squeezes her hand again, letting her know that he’s done talking and she can continue with her story, if she wants to.

“If you don’t mind me asking, why was Adelaide acting all . . . the way she was, when we walked into your room?”

At this, Scott scratches the back of his neck as he blushes. “I think she had feelings for me, even though she never explicitly said. Once I came back upstairs after talking with you, I told her that I was going to call the whole fake-relationship thing off, because it was unnecessary, and because . . . well, I’m in love with you, Tessa.”

She wants to kiss him, wants to lean over and press her lips to his more than she’s ever wanted anything, maybe ever in her life. 

But she doesn’t, not yet. There are some things she wants to say first.

She looks away from him, away from their joined hands, and into the kitchen, picks a random spot on the wall to stare at. “If we’re going to do this . . . I want us to be totally and completely honest with each other. No more secrets, even if we think they won’t matter to the other person.”

“No more secrets,” Scott promises, and the way that he looks at her makes her want to melt into a puddle right here in her living room. His eyes are soft, and his lips are upturned in a smile that he seems to reserve for only her. He’d told her once that he was the realest version of himself when he was with her, and now she’s seeing what he means.

He doesn’t seem to be putting up a façade, like he does when he’s on camera or doing interviews. He’s as real as he can be, as he allows himself to be, in those moments, but it’s nothing, _absolutely nothing_ , compared to what she feels now, sitting next to him on her living room couch after she’s just bared her soul to him.

“Tessa.” Her name sounds different coming from him, although she doesn’t know how.

 _It’s sweeter_ , she decides, he treats each letter like it’s the best thing he’ll ever say.

She hasn’t realized that he’s moved closer to her, that when he said her name, his breath was warm against her skin, making her shiver. 

When she looks at him, she gazes at his lips before her eyes find their way to his. His brown eyes are warm and amused. His expression matches what hers is, she’s sure: he mostly just looks like he wants to kiss her and never stop, like he wants to hold her and never let her go.

“What?” she teases, despite the fact that she’s pretty sure she knows what he wants.

“Can I kiss you?”

They are so close that when she speaks next, her lips brush against his.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was the one that I had the most trouble with, but I really liked how it turned out! I hope all of you had a happy holiday season, and thank you for reading this chapter! :) 
> 
> (also, since I don't think I've mentioned it, I don't own the plot points in "Notting Hill")


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The media find out about Scott and Tessa's relationship.

Tessa and Scott are making lunch later that day when Kaitlyn wanders into the kitchen.

She swipes an apple from the basket on the table and raises it to take a bite, but stops when Scott raises an eyebrow.

“Shouldn’t you wash that first?” he asks, not unkindly.

“And I thought you had to work today? Why are you home so early?” Tessa adds, “Not that, you know, we’re not happy to see you.”

Kaitlyn walks over to the sink and washes off her apple, takes a bite out of it before she answers. “I had to work, but I decided to take a half-day because everyone at the office was sick. Also, I feel like I should mention that I had a super hard time getting in here; there’s paparazzi _everywhere_.”

Suddenly, Tessa can’t breathe. She can’t think, and the only word that she can think of is: _“Here?”_

Without saying anything, Scott walks over to the window and looks outside, before turning back to his girlfriend and her roommate.

“I don’t think anyone is going to go anywhere today. We should all stay put, figure out how to get them to go away.”

“ _Will_ they go away, though? How did they even find out where we live, Kaitlyn?” Tessa’s voice rises as she talks. Not in anger, but in something else. Discomfort, maybe. 

She can feel herself getting anxious, and the worry in her voice is clear, even as she paces around the kitchen. 

It just bothers her so much that all these people, these paparazzi, know where she lives. She’s never had a reason to think about how private she is, until. Tessa has only worked in a tiny shoe store, not as some multi-millionaire actor who everyone wants to get the latest scoop on. She has no idea what it’s like to have fans wanting to know everything about your life, and she seems to have forgot about people prying when she agreed to date Scott.

Not that she regrets it, of course. She just wasn’t prepared for this to happen so quickly. There’s a part of her that wishes that Scott had told her that her life would be catapulted into the spotlight as the two of them dated; but then she realizes that he had no idea that this would happen either, that he’s probably never had to deal with his relationship being given the attention to the public, because, as he’d said, his last relationship was before his career took off.

“Tessa?”

It’s Scott, and she’s been so caught up in her thoughts that she hasn’t realized that he’s standing in front of her, his hands warm and comforting on her shoulders.

Her eyes wander around his face, taking in the fact that he’s frowning, and his eyes are clouded with something akin to worry. He hasn’t said anything, but she can tell that he wishes he could soothe all of her worries with kisses and sweet words. Before she can think about it, she has her arms wrapped around him and her head pressed against his chest.

“Just breathe,” he tells her, so quiet that only she can hear, rubbing circles on her back, “It’s going to be okay, Tessa. They’ll go away eventually, it might just be awhile.” Scott turns to Tessa’s roommate, who she’s honestly forgotten is in the room. “Kaitlyn, did they say anything to you when you walked past?”

“Nothing that I assumed was out of the ordinary; they wanted me to talk about you, or get you to come out of the house so that you could talk to them. They were asking about Tessa, your relationship with her. I’m not sure . . . I’m not sure who tipped them off that you were here, because it wasn’t me, and they weren’t here when I left for work this morning.”

“Did you mention to _anyone_ that you knew that Scott was here?” Tessa asks, shifting in Scott’s arms to look at Kaitlyn, trying her hardest not to sound harsh, because even if Kaitlyn did mention Scott to someone, on the phone while she was walking to work or something, there was no way that she could’ve known about the paparazzi, so it wouldn’t be her fault that this is happening.

Unless someone deliberately tipped the paparazzi off to where Scott was, it’s no one’s fault that this is happening. Tessa takes a few deep breaths to remind herself of that, and Kaitlyn patiently waits until she’s calm to answer. Scott is still rubbing circles on her back, and she’s grateful.

“Well, I was on the phone with my mom while I was walking to work.”

“She works at the art store next to the shoe shop,” Tessa explains to Scott, who had been looking at the two of them in confusion. “So, it’s easier for both of us to walk to work.”

He nods. “Kaitlyn, did anyone hear you while you were on the phone?”

“I didn’t think so, but apparently I was wrong.”

It takes a while, just as Scott told her, but the paparazzi do eventually leave. 

The three of them wake up the next morning, and are relieved to find that their street, at least in front of their house, is empty.

Kaitlyn and Tessa leave for work, and Scott paces around their living room while on the phone with Evan, his agent, trying to figure out what his next job is going to be. The two have agreed to let him stay for a few days, after he’d checked all of the hotels in the area to find them full, due to some business conference in town.

A few hours later, Tessa and Kaitlyn walk through the door at the same time to find Scott watching TV. Judging by the way he’s scrolling through his phone and not at all paying attention to the events unfolding on-screen, she knows that he isn’t really watching anything, so she sits down next to him.

“Hey, how was your day?” she asks quietly, as Kaitlyn heads upstairs to change out of her work clothes.

Scott sets his phone down before he turns to look at her; he looks tired: his eyes are somewhat gloomy and when he attempts to smile, it looks forced and out of place with the Scott she knows.

Instead of answering, he wraps his arms around her and presses soft, gentle kisses into her hair.

“Not good?” Tessa guesses, touching her knee to his lightly, which earns her a chuckle.

“It was okay, actually. Kind of weird being here without you and Kaitlyn though. I missed you.”

“I’ll have to tell Kaitlyn you missed her. She’ll be thrilled,” she whispers, kissing him.

“You know what I mean,” he mumbles against her lips, his voice suddenly an octave lower and making her shiver. 

She runs her hands through his hair and his arm circles around her back, pulling her into his lap.

As their kisses deepen, Tessa wraps her legs around her boyfriend’s waist, her hands on his chest.

“Tessa,” he breathes out her name like he can’t get enough of it.

She can’t help but laugh. “Yes, Scott?”

He smiles but doesn’t have time to say anything before Kaitlyn walks back downstairs.

Tessa hastily moves off of him and tries to keep a straight face. She knows how she would feel if she walked down the stairs to see Kaitlyn and her boyfriend making out.

She supposes Kaitlyn would need a boyfriend in order for that to happen, but then she remembers that it has definitely happened before, countless times.

Still, it’s embarrassing to her, because she believes that when or where she and Scott kiss should only be her and Scott’s business, no one else’s. 

_Which means no more making out on the couch. At least, not when Kaitlyn is home._

“Hey, Scott, can I talk to you for a second?” Kaitlyn questions, and then, when he doesn’t move, gestures to the kitchen. “Like, now.”

She doesn’t look at Tessa, but she also doesn’t seem upset, which Tessa takes as a good sign.

“Of course. I’ll be right back,” he answers, pecks her on the cheek quickly before he stands.

She has no idea what Kaitlyn could possibly need to talk to just Scott about, but figures that it’s not her business unless he really, really wants to tell her.

Tessa busies herself by lying on the couch, scrolling through Instagram. She tries to concentrate on the pictures in front of her, but is too distracted by the hushed tones coming from the kitchen.

The door finally opens what feels like years later. Scott is grinning, and Kaitlyn is nowhere to be seen.

“Everything okay?” she asks as she sits up. “You guys were in there for a long time.”

The words are out of her mouth before she can stop them, but, for what it’s worth, Scott doesn’t seem upset about it at all.

“Yeah, everything’s fine. You’ll see in a few days.”

She can’t help but think that he’s being awfully secretive, but she doesn’t ask any questions.

 

Tessa gets home from work a few days later, expecting to see Kaitlyn and not Scott, who is supposed to be on a very important conference call for most of the day.

And yet, she doesn’t see Kaitlyn, but she does see Scott, standing in the middle of the living room, surrounded by colorful posters and muttering to himself as he tapes them to the wall.

“Um, what are you doing?” she asks, and he jumps, like she’s not supposed to see him.

He makes a move to cover whatever posters are around him, but it doesn’t work that well, considering half are on the wall and half are on the ground. “Oh, hey, Tessa.”

Scott is talking casually, as if he wasn’t expecting to see her, despite the fact that she lives here.

“What are you doing?” she repeats, walking closer to him to inspect the posters.

She takes a look at one of the ones on the floor. It’s lavender, and there’s what looks like a printed-out PowerPoint slide on it, titled, _A (Hopefully) Helpful Guide to_ . . .

The rest of the title is cut off by another poster, and she resists the urge to see what it says.

When she looks up, he looks nervous. His cheeks are reddening and he’s scratching the back of his neck.

“Scott?” she tries again.

“Remember how I talked to Kaitlyn about . . . something, and then I said that you would find out in a few days? Well, it’s been a few days.”

“Right,” she says slowly, drawling out the word as if it’ll make her better understand the situation. “But what does this mean?”

“It’s a . . .” Scott starts, but then thinks better of it and gestures to the couch. “If you would sit, please, Tessa.”

She does, watching as he hangs the last few posters on the wall, and she can’t say that she’s any less confused than she had been when she first walked in the door.

“So.” Her boyfriend claps his hands together, a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. “I’ve compiled a guide of everything you should be aware of while you’re dating me. Or any celebrity, really, now that I think about it, but I don’t really want to think about that. This is what Kaitlyn and I were talking about the other day. She suggested it, actually, because she knew that you were really freaked out about the paparazzi thing. This is hopefully going to help you understand certain situations and how to handle them, and this is in no way meant to be taken as condescending. I don’t . . . I don’t want you to worry all the time, T, especially because you don’t need to, okay?”

She nods. “I think it’s really sweet of you, Scott.”

He smiles boyishly at her, and Tessa has to restrain herself from leaping up from her chair and kissing him. “Thank you. May I present: _The Comprehensive Guide to Dating Scott Moir_!”

And with that, he gestures to the poster directly behind him with a grand flourish, which makes her laugh.

It’s bright yellow, titled _How to Deal with (Mean) Social Media Comments_.

“First: How to Deal with Social Media Comments. I guess this one wasn’t entirely necessary since you aren’t on social media, but in case you ever do decide to, well . . . People can be mean, and sometimes they say mean things. They’ll want me to be with love interests in previous movies, or they’ll talk about how I should or shouldn’t be in a certain movie. There’s one thing that you should know when it comes to this: Do not, under any circumstance, read the comments on Instagram or Twitter. And don’t ever Google yourself. This will lead you to comparing yourself to other people, which is never good. Trust me on that, T.

“So, there are four solutions to dealing with social media comments: Ignore it, block the people who spread hate, turn off the comments, and don’t be on social media at all. I’ve tried to do that last one many times, but then I always get curious as to what my friends from previous movies are up to. Social media is good for that, and for interacting with fans who are kind. You can also use it to, like, share your thoughts on things that you’re passionate about.”

There are several more posters after that, including _What to do when the Paparazzi Try to Question You; How to Get Ready for a Movie Premiere; How to Walk the Red Carpet at an Awards Show; How to Handle Being Recognized in Public (Yes, It Will Happen)_.

The last poster is the glitteriest one of all, and it boasts the title: _How to Meet Scott’s Parents_.

Tessa blinks a few times, studies at the poster before glancing at Scott. “You’re . . . you’re sure about this?”

“Absolutely. I’ve met your family, T. I think it’s time, if you’re ready of course.”

She finds herself nodding, and then she beams at him. “I am.”

 

Tessa meets Joe and Alma Moir on a Tuesday night, a few weeks later. They’re in town to go to the set of Scott’s newest movie, which has started filming up again after it was halted.

The movie is thankfully filming somewhat close to where Tessa and Kaitlyn live.

Scott picks her up at her house; he was staying with her (and Kaitlyn) until filming on his movie started again, and he’s been living in an apartment close to the set.

“Hi,” he says after she opens the door, and she smiles at him. “You look beautiful, T.”

It took her so long to pick out an outfit for tonight that she’s surprised she’s ready in time.

She’s chosen a burgundy knee-length dress, with matching sparkles along the neckline. It’s been in the back of her closet for so long that she forgot about it, because she hasn’t had the chance to dress up for anything nice in what feels like a long time.

She can’t help the fact that her cheeks warm. “Hi, thanks. You look very nice yourself.”

“I can feel you trembling,” he tells her as they walk to the restaurant.

“Oh. Um, I’m sorry. I’m just really nervous. Will your parents like me?”

“Tessa, they’re going to absolutely love you. You’re pretty much all I talk about to them, but don’t let that worry you, okay? They’re really excited to meet you.”

“No pressure,” she mumbles under her breath, which makes Scott laugh.

When they get to the restaurant where the four of them are meeting, Tessa feels like she wants to throw up. She’s been to this restaurant before, with her family for various birthdays’.

 _Don’t order anything with garlic_ , she thinks, and then reprimands herself because _this isn’t a first date, Tessa. You should calm down, it’s just Scott’s parents. He already said that they’re going to love you, and when has Scott ever been wrong about that sort of thing? Just don’t mess up._

Alma and Joe are already sitting when the two approach the table, but they stand when they see them.

Scott’s parents hug Scott first, and then they hug Tessa, which surprises her.

“Tessa, we’ve heard so much about you,” Joe tells her after they’ve all sat down and the waiter has left with their orders.

She sneaks a glance at Scott, who is grinning next to her. “Yeah, Scott told me. I hope he didn’t tell you anything too embarrassing, Mr. Moir.”

Scott’s dad laughs. “He didn’t, but I don’t know if there’s too many embarrassing stories to tell about you, Tessa. And, please, call me Joe.”

“Well,” she answers, “the first time Scott and I met, I had to stop a lady from stealing a pair of shoes. She’d put them under her shirt and tried to walk out the door.”

“It was a very . . . rectangular baby bump,” Scott adds.

“How is working in the shoe business, Tessa?” Alma questions, before she says, “Please don’t call me Mrs. Moir, it makes me feel old. Otherwise I’ll just have to call you Ms. Virtue.”

It takes her a second to realize that Alma is joking. There’s growing amusement behind the other woman’s eyes, and soon Tessa lets out a small laugh.

“The shoe business is just that, I think, Alma. It’s business. I’ve been working there for a long time, and I couldn’t be happier. I love that each shoe has a story. That sounds really cheesy, I know, but it’s definitely the truth.”

Soon, the food arrives, and no one says anything for a long while. When dinner is over, Joe and Alma pay for the meal without even saying anything about it.

“Well, Joe and I are very tired, and I’m sure both of you have to work very early. It was so nice to meet you, Tessa. We’re in town for a few more days, what do you say getting coffee?”

“I think that sounds perfect,” she replies, as the four of them hug and say their goodbyes.

“I’ll walk you home,” Scott says, lacing their fingers together.

“I had a really great time tonight,” she tells him, and when she looks at him, he’s smiling.

They reach her front door, where he pauses to kiss her, which brings grins to both of their faces.

“Good, I’m glad. They loved you, T, I could tell.”

 _I love you_ , she almost says, but doesn’t. 

_It’s too soon_ , the thought pops into her head before she can stops it. _You haven’t been dating for that long_.

 _But we’ve known each other for almost a year_ , she reasons, _besides, we’ve already said that we’re in love with each other. This is just the next step._

The words are out of her mouth before she can stop them.

“Scott, I love you.”

He just stares at her, like he can’t believe she’s just said what she did, and then he’s beaming, picking her up and twirling her around. When she feels his lips on hers, she knows then. Knows that this is it, that he’s The One.

If she’s honest, she never let herself believe in soulmates, but now, as Scott kisses her, slips his fingers through her hair, whispers Tessa, I love you, too against her lips, she knows that she believes in soulmates now.

 

A month later, she goes to visit him on the set of his new movie.

She can’t believe she’s doing this. She can’t believe she’s actually getting in the car to go surprise Scott Moir, who also happens to be her boyfriend. This is absolutely ridiculous, yet she makes it all the way to the set, somehow.

When she gets there, an intimidating bodyguard stops her from entering the fenced-off area that is the set.

“Are you visiting someone?” he asks gruffly, peering at her.

“Um, yes. My boy – my friend, Scott.”

“Does Mr. Moir know you’re coming to visit?”

“No, it’s a surprise.”

“Then I can’t let you in. I’m sorry, it’s for safety reasons. We can’t just let anyone in here who says they’re giving one of our actors a surprise visit.”

He’s talking down to her, and she hates it, but there’s nothing she can do except walk away.

Before she does, she makes eye contact with Scott, who smiles, which prompts the bodyguard to let her through. A woman leads her around the set, and Tessa is given a headset so that she could hear the dialogue within the scene.

Scott and another actress are standing off to the side, away from where two other actors are yelling over some girl. She doesn’t entirely understand what’s going on, but she freezes when she hears something that catches her attention.

“Who is she?” the actress (thankfully _not_ Adelaide) asks, and Tessa turns to see both of them looking in her direction.

She doesn’t think that Scott knows that she can tell what they’re saying, which doesn’t really excuse what he says next.

“Just someone from my personal life. I don’t even know why she’s here, I wasn’t expecting to see her.”

 _I don’t even know why she’s here_ echoes around her head so much that it makes her so upset that she practically tears off the headset and stands abruptly.

 _Maybe because I’m your girlfriend!_ she wants to shout, but she doesn’t. It would just cause her unwanted attention, and she’s sure that Scott wouldn’t want her to announce to the whole set that they’re dating, not after what he’s just said.

“I have to go,” she says to Jerry, the sound guy, who’s looking at her quizzically but thankfully doesn’t ask any questions.

When she’s far enough away from the set, she wonders if she had a right to get as upset as she did. She sits down on the sidewalk and takes a few deep breaths to calm herself. 

_It’s okay, Tessa. Just let him explain himself, if he wants to. And maybe train yourself to not run from situations like this. Wasn’t that the whole point behind_ The Comprehensive Guide to Dating Scott Moir? _To get you to not be upset when things like this happen?_

 _Yes,_ she decides, _and this time, I’m going to hear what he has to say without immediately getting angry._

 

Not getting angry doesn’t work as well as she’d thought it would.

For starters, it takes him a few days to come into the store and apologize.

She’s in the back office, doing paperwork, when there’s a knock on the door, and then Marie comes into her office. “Tess, there’s someone here to see you.” 

“Can’t you deal with them? Sorry, I’m a little bit busy.” 

That, and she hopes that whoever is waiting for her isn’t who she wants it to be. 

“No, I’m afraid not. They asked for you specifically.” 

Reluctantly, she walks out to the front of the store, before she sees Scott, and almost turns around to leave, before he starts to talk. 

“I’m sorry, Tessa.” 

“Me, too.” The words are harsh and cold, and he looks surprised for a moment that she’s said them before he composes himself.

“Don’t say that.” 

“Well, why did you say what you did the other day?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“To that actress, about how I was someone from your personal life. Like I haven’t spent every day of the past few weeks being with you. Hearing your words dripping deliciously from your lips into my ear, feeling the warmth of your lips on mine. I don’t know how you could say that.” 

“What did you want me to say, Tessa? I didn’t want to spill everything between us, just because there’s so much there and I hardly know her. I mean, I work with her, yes, but that is another reason not to tell her. Especially because everything that happened is so fragile.” 

She’s silent. 

“You don’t have to forgive me,” he tells her, and she looks up, then away from him. “But I’d like it if you did.” 

She blinks. “I hadn’t even thought about it like that. That she was someone you didn’t necessarily get along with, and you might not want her to know about your personal life, about us.” 

Scott grins boyishly at her, and she lends him the smallest of smiles back. 

“I’m sorry I left.” 

“I’m sorry I didn’t come and find you sooner. I’d like another . . . another chance, if you’ll have me.” 

She takes a step closer to him, and the store suddenly seems very small. “I forgive you, Scott. Not just for yesterday, but for all of it. Here's to second chances.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry this chapter took so long to post! I just couldn't figure out what to say, and I've been having a few other ideas for new stories that I can't stop thinking about, so I'm really excited for those (although I'm going to finish this story before I start posting anything else)!
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa attends her first movie premiere with Scott.

_one year later_

 

It’s taken her a long time to get used to the fact that her boyfriend is famous, because that isn’t something that most people have to get used to.

 _Working in a shoe store where we sold mostly used shoes didn’t exactly prepare me for a life of having to get ready for premieres and fancy awards shows that I thought I would only be watching from my couch_ , she thinks. Not that she’s actually mad about it, obviously, because getting ready to go to Scott’s newest movie premiere, like how they are tonight, is something that she’s been looking forward to for a long time.

They started dating after his previous movie, _Splendid_ , came out last year, so she hasn’t gotten this opportunity to go to any big events like this.

She lies awake in bed the night before, thinking about how nervous she is for all of cameras and questions, people photographing her and Scott’s entire walk down the red carpet, as well as ask them questions she isn’t sure she has the answers to. _Then again_ , she reasons, as she glances at the clock and sighs when it’s past four in the morning, _I’m not sure that people even talk to the guests that the celebrities bring, so I might not have to answer any questions_.

The little sleep she gets is interrupted by the blaring of the alarm clock, and she practically slams her hand down on it to shut it off. Scott is still sleeping soundly beside her, and Tessa can’t help but be the tiniest bit jealous.

Bridgette, the stylist that had been recommended to Tessa by Scott’s agent, had recommended that she gets a shower two hours before Bridgette and her team get there.

Which is why Tessa is showering at six in the morning, when she could be sleeping. She walks out of the bathroom several minutes later to see her boyfriend still asleep, and she wants nothing more in this moment than to crawl under the covers next to him. They’d moved in together a few months ago, and she still can’t believe that they’re dating.

Not because he’s famous, because she forgets about that most of the time. She isn’t dating Scott for the fancy vacations and delicious dinners (despite the fact that the tabloids are saying the opposite); she can’t believe they’re dating because he’s everything she’s always wanted, always looked for, in a person: funny and sweet, caring and kind, not to mention he fits in so well with her family.

Bridgette shows up at the front door at eight o’clock on the dot, racks and racks of garment bags behind her. She air-kisses Tessa’s cheeks while Tessa stands there in shock and thinks, for a second, that this is all a dream. Then, Bridgette pulls away, laughs slightly, and proclaims that she’s _a stylist to the stars, my dear_ in a thick British accent.

Tessa sees that her stylist is wearing a heavy beige coat, with a faux-fur collar. Once Bridgette has shed the coat, she drops it in the hands of an unsuspecting, stunned Tessa, who sees that she’s wearing a blue pantsuit, with pearls and sparkles all over it.

“So,” she asks Tessa, as she adjusts her blue paisley cat-eye glasses, “Do you have anything in mind for tonight?”

Tessa scratches her arm, slightly nervous and intimidated by the other woman. Evan, Scott’s agent, had nothing but great things to say about her, and it isn’t that, it just seems like Bridgette is very intense, with all of her vibrantly colored makeup and her platinum blonde hair.

“Uh, not really. Something that is long enough to reach the ground, I guess.”

Bridgette clicks her tongue in disapproval, shaking her head as she gestures for the rest of her team to make their way past her and into the kitchen. “Just remember that you can wear any of these dresses that we have for you. You don’t have to go with the first one you see.”

“Right. Thanks.”

The stylist nods and then turns to the rest of her team, starts barking out orders when she realizes that no one has started to do anything.

She tiptoes up the stairs, slightly afraid of Bridgette or someone else catching on to the fact that she disappeared upstairs to wake up her boyfriend, but when she reaches their room Scott’s already awake, tapping on his phone screen.

“Good morning,” she greets him, grinning, and he laughs when his eyes flick to hers as she sits down next to him.

“Good morning, Tessa. Are you ready for tonight?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be. Did you know that the stylist Evan recommended is slightly intimidating? Scott, she’s wearing paisley cat-eye glasses!”

“Is that a problem?” Bridgette’s voice floats into the room, and Tessa’s head whips over to the doorway so fast she’s sure that she gets whiplash.

“No, not at all!” she squeaks out, glancing at her boyfriend, who is trying very hard not to laugh.

“Well, then, come on. You’re needed downstairs so that Lina can get started on your hair.”

 _Good luck_ , Scott mouths, to which Tessa rolls her eyes at as she holds in a laugh.

Lina, the hairstylist, frowns when Tessa sits down in the chair in front of her. “Did you wash your hair this morning?”

“Um, yes,” she answers, the end of her statement sounding more like a question.

Lina sighs loudly, and mutters something to the man next to her, who laughs.

Tessa shifts uncomfortably in her chair, not really knowing what she did wrong and hoping that this will be over soon enough.

It takes Lina almost three hours to do her hair, during which time Darcy, the make-up artist, has started prepping Tessa’s make-up.

“Do you moisturize regularly?” Darcy asks, raising her eyebrows.

“I wash my face every morning,” Tessa offers lamely, and she can’t help but feel like these people think she’s doing everything wrong. “But no, I don’t moisturize.”

“You really should,” the make-up artist replies in a clipped tone, as she, without warning, smooths a large brush over Tessa’s face.

“Does this look okay, Ms. Virtue?” Lina questions a few minutes later, ignoring Darcy’s protests when she turns Tessa around so that she can see her hair in the mirror.

Her hair has been curled and pinned up into an up-do, something that looks really intricate and like it might hurt her scalp with the amount of bobby pins she can see.

“Yeah,” she says, “it looks amazing. Thank you, Lina.”

No matter how many times she tells all of them to _just call me Tessa_ , they all call her _Ms. Virtue_ and, when Scott walks through the kitchen as Darcy is working on Tessa’s eyeshadow, he calls her _Tess_ , to which Bridgette almost scolds him for because she thinks that he’s part of her team. She’s facing away from him and laughs slightly to herself when she realizes her mistake.

Scott just smiles awkwardly, grabs a granola bar, and reaches over to give one to Tessa until Darcy yelps at him like she’s in physical pain.

“She can’t have this oatmeal bar while I’m two inches from her _face_ , Mr. Moir,” Darcy explains, like it’s obvious.

Tessa hands the granola bar to Scott without a word. A look of amusement passes his face, and she goes to roll her eyes before she realizes that her make-up artist is watching them intently.

Her boyfriend spends half hour chatting with Louis, Lina's assistant, about tonight's premiere, before Bridgette shoos him out of the kitchen.

“Ms. Virtue needs to pick a dress!” she announces grandly, sweeping her hands across the expanse of the now-cramped kitchen to show the different colors and styles of dresses. “And you,” she tells Scott, pointing at him, “can’t see the dress until the two of you are ready to go.”

“This isn’t a wedding, Bridgette,” Tessa explains gently, regretting her words as soon as Bridgette whirls around to face her.

“It’s very, very important. Tonight may as well be your wedding, Ms. Virtue.”

 _I’m not sure that’s true_ , she thinks, _but it probably isn’t a good idea to say that to Bridgette_.

She ends up picking a sleeveless emerald dress that falls almost to the ground, and she’s relieved when Bridgette and Lina nod in approval. Tessa doesn’t need their approval, but it’s nice of them to give it anyway.

“That dress looks gorgeous on you,” Scott whispers to her hours later, as they’re on the way to the premiere.

“Thanks,” she replies with a grin, and she wants to kiss him so badly, but Darcy’s warning of _you can’t mess up your makeup, Ms. Virtue_ sticks out in her mind. “You look really handsome.”

And he does, in a sleek black suit, his hair gelled down slightly, so that it isn’t sticking up like it normally is, even though Tessa kind of misses the messy hair. She knows, though, that there’s no way he could have possibly worn it like that, because it wouldn’t look the best in pictures and Scott doesn’t want her. He does look epically handsome like that, though, don’t get her wrong.

“Thank you, Tessa. I love you.”

She beams at him. “I love you, too, Scott.”

 

“Scott! Tessa! Over here!”

A thousand different flashes from a thousand different cameras happen almost simultaneously.

Tessa blinks, still seeing bursts of white behind her eyes.

It's the movie that Scott filmed last year, the one that had delayed production, that they're at the premiere for, which means two things: One, that he’s going to have to go on another press tour, not unlike the one that he was on when they met; and two, Tessa has to walk various red carpets in various cities, something that she’s never done before.

When Scott asked her if she’d attend these premieres with him, he’d been nervous, stumbling over his words and avoiding her amused gaze. In interviews, he’s always so poised and concise, putting on a professional façade for the world to see while still being charming. 

With Tessa, he doesn’t put on a façade and is almost never serious, but in a good way. He’s funny, makes her laugh all the time. He makes her feel loved, like she’s the happiest person on the planet, and she is.

Marie-France had been nothing but gracious when Tessa had asked for time off so that she could accompany her boyfriend to the Los Angeles premiere, because that’s where the movie is showing for the first time. Patch, Tessa’s boss’s husband, has picked up the shifts that she’s leaving behind.

Scott leans down, whispers _relax, T, it’s okay_ into her ear, his warm breath sending shivers down her spine, even though the red carpet that they’re standing on is in Los Angeles, and the night air around them is warmer than it is back home.

She tries to remember to relax; really, she does. But she’s never been to such a big red carpet event, such a big thing that matters so much to someone she loves. Everyone around her is a seasoned pro, even Scott, as much as he’ll try to deny it later.

Not to mention how Bridgette and the rest of her team acted around her earlier, like everything she did was wrong just because she isn’t famous or used to being around famous people like they are. (With the exception of Scott, but he doesn’t know the difference between foundation and concealer, so she supposes that’s different.)

She spent so long worrying that the reporters were going to ask her questions, and she’s thankful and elated when no one does. Tessa has no idea what she would even say.

Soon enough, they’re entering the theater where they’ll watch the movie, and Scott’s hand is warm on the small of her back as he leads her down the aisle, to their seats.

When she meets his eyes, he’s smiling that private, boyish grin that he seems to reserve only for her and all of the nerves that she’s carried around with her today melt away.

“You okay?” he mumbles, and her hand squeezes his knee in response.

“Yeah,” she answers truthfully, smiling even though she can’t see him now that the lights have dimmed.

After the movie, they take an Uber back to their hotel. The driver is thankfully quiet, and Tessa and Scott spend the ride talking quietly about anything except the movie.

Not that it’s bad. In fact, Tessa thought that was very good. The first time that she watched one of Scott’s movies after they’d first gotten together, she found that it was awkward to watch the kissing scenes; she’d kiss him instead of watching him kiss someone else, which he thought was really funny and cute.

“So, Ms. Virtue,” Scott grins when he calls her that, and pauses to kiss her cheek sweetly, “how was your first red carpet experience?”

She pretends to think about it but ends up laughing in the quietness of their Uber. The radio is playing some love song that she doesn’t know, creating an ambience that makes her want to kiss him and never stop. “You know, Mr. Moir, honestly, it wasn’t all that bad. My boyfriend is a pretty great actor, if I do say so myself, and the world’s best red carpet partner.”

He smirks, raises his eyebrows. “Oh, do you, now?”

“Yeah,” Tessa whispers, leaning over to kiss him, not caring about Darcy's warning about her makeup now that they're no longer on the red carpet. When she pulls away, the woman driving meets her eyes in the rearview mirror, which makes Tessa the tiniest bit uncomfortable.

She’s never been comfortable with PDA in general, until she met Scott. Suddenly, she’d understood why people wanted to kiss their significant others’ in public, because that’s what she had wanted to do. If they were at the store or, well, anywhere, she couldn’t stop herself from taking his hand as they walked or kissed his cheek while they were stopped at a crosswalk.

As comfortable as she’s become with small kisses and hand holding, there are still things she isn’t comfortable with, that Scott isn’t either. 

Kissing, for one, in part because of what just happened with their Uber driver.

Tessa leans back in her seat, lets her hand find Scott’s, smiles as their linked hands sit between them.

“I’m sorry that I have to go home tomorrow,” she mumbles, as the car stops and lets them out in front of their hotel.

“Let’s not talk about that, okay? I don’t even want to think about how we won’t get to see each other for a month, Tessa. _I’m_ sorry, that I have to go on this press tour, and that you can’t come with me.”

“Well,” she reasons, as they’re riding the elevator up to their room, “I could come with you, but I’m not sure how much Marie-France would like that, plus, you and I both know how anxious I get at red carpet’s. There are too many questions, too much pressure. Too many people yelling. It’s stressful, and I don’t know how you do it all the time.”

“I guess it’s just something I’ve grown used to. You should give it time, if it’s something that you want to do, because I’d like to have you by my side throughout these premieres. In fact,” he stops for a second, unlocks the door and waits until it’s shut behind them before continuing. “I’d like to have you by my side throughout these premieres for the rest of our lives’.”

She’s turned away from him, taking off the heels that she’d been wearing for way too long.

“I’d like that, too,” she answers softly.

“Tessa,” he whispers, and she turns around to see him kneeling in front of her, on one knee, a ring box open in his hand.

“Oh,” she breathes out, and he grins.

“I know we’ve only been dating a year and a few months, but I know that you’re the love of my life. I’ve known since the first day we met, I think. Tess, will you marry me?”

Her heart and her mind scream _yes yes yes yes_ in unison, and the word is out of her mouth before she can give it another thought.

“Yes.”

The word is clear and loud, matching the brightness in Scott’s eyes. He stands, slips the ring on her finger, which she doesn’t even take time to look at before she’s throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him.

“I love you so, _so_ much,” she tells him, pressing her lips to his again. "And, it might be too soon to say this, but I can't wait to be your wife."

“I love you more, Tessa. It's not too soon to say that. I've wanted to marry you since we first started dating. Hell, I think I’ve wanted to marry you since I kissed you for the first time in the doorway of the apartment you used to share with Kaitlyn."

 

Tessa flies home from LA that morning, and Kaitlyn picks her up from the airport. Even though Tessa and Scott live together, she’s going to stay with Kaitlyn while he’s away on tour.

“Oh, my God, Tessa!” her former roommate practically yells when she shows her the ring on her finger.

“I know,” she smiles, glancing at it and thinking of Scott, her _fiancé_.

“It’s beautiful. You seem really happy.”

“Thanks, Kaitlyn, I definitely am. I love Scott more than anything.”

Throughout his press tour, the two keep in contact in any way that they can, and, a week or so before his last stop in Toronto, Tessa gets an idea.

She’s going to surprise him, and, a week later, when she gets in the car to drive to the hotel that the conference is being held at, she can’t believe that she’s really going to surprise him.

Is it even going to work? she can’t help but wonder, but she doesn’t let that stop her as she drives along the highway. 

“Please,” she practically begs the woman behind the front desk, who only raises an eyebrow and shakes her head. Then Kaitlyn, who’s come with her, comes over. 

“What’s going on here?” she asks angrily. “My friend here just wants to look at the room you use for your weddings.” 

“I’m sorry, miss, but that room is in use right now for a press conference, and your friend didn’t mention that she’s looking to get married.” 

“Yeah, she is. To the movie star that is a part of the press conference.” 

The lady looks impressed, but for a second, a look passes across her face, as if she’s trying to decide whether or not Kaitlyn is lying. Then, her eyes flicker to the ring on Tessa’s finger. Then, her eyes flicker to the ring on Tessa’s finger, which must make her decide Kaitlyn _isn’t_ lying, because she says, “Of course.” 

“I’m not–” she tries to protest, but she’s already being led to the conference room. 

When she looks back at Kaitlyn, she sees that her former roommate is nodding and smiling brightly.

“Mr. Moir, how long will you be here in Canada?” a reporter is asking when she enters.

“I leave tomorrow for Vancouver,” Scott answers, and Tessa hears his voice before she sees him. When she does, she feels her heart let out a sigh of relief. 

“So, I saw an interview, claiming that you’re engaged,” the next reporter says, “Are you?” 

Scott leans forward into the microphone. “We’re not, no.”

Even though they talked about how they’re going to keep their engagement a secret, it still hurts her to see him have to lie, to hear the word no come from him, even though it’s the opposite.

“Care to elaborate more on that?” someone else asks. 

“What more is there to say?” he replies with a shrug.

Tessa is feeling brave, but also nervous at the prospect of surprising him, seeing him for the first time in a month. 

She raises her hand without even realizing it, and the moderator calls on her to ask a question. 

“Mr. Moir,” she starts off, and she almost grins at the look of surprise on Scott’s face, but then it’s gone before she can react. “What if this woman wanted to talk about your engagement? What if she’s feeling really excited about marrying you, and wants people to know, but she’s just scared? You should talk to her, this woman, but only–” 

“Her name is Ms. Virtue, I believe,” someone supplies, like she doesn’t know her own name.

She’s surprised they haven’t recognized her yet, although she isn’t sure how they would, considering all of her social media profiles are set to private.

“Right, thank you. Say this Ms. Virtue person was actually just trying to guard her heart her relationship, but now she’s . . . willing to try something new? How do you feel about that?” 

Everyone around Tessa is very confused, and she thinks that she would be, too, if she’d had no details of the situation between her and Scott. 

“I’d say yes to Ms. Virtue, of course,” he answers, and the look on his face is worth the surprise, the worry for the last year over their relationship.

He’s smiling, looking at her so deeply it’s as if he doesn’t believe she’s here, and, when he catches her after, he spins her around in his arms.

“How did you get here?” he murmurs, and she grins, presses her lips to his.

“I drove here,” she answers simply, laughing at the look he gives her. “Kaitlyn came with me, and I just remembered that she’s waiting in the lobby, probably, so I should probably get going.”

“Stay here, with me,” he tells her, “Evan can bring us home.”

“Okay,” she answers instantly, and then she goes off to tell Kaitlyn that she’s going with Scott, to also thank her for coming along.

When Tessa sees Kaitlyn, she’s talking to a man holding a notebook, a journalist who she remembers seeing not five minutes ago at the press conference.

 _Oh no_ , she thinks, _what if she’s talking about Scott, or something? To a_ reporter _, no less?_

“Kaitlyn,” she whispers, gesturing wildly for her friend to come over to her.

“Hey, how did it go with Scott? Was he surprised?”

“Yeah, and I came over here to tell you that I’m going to spend some time with him, so you can go home, but . . . why are you talking to a reporter who was just in the same press conference that Scott was on?”

Kaitlyn’s cheeks tinge pink and she turns away. “Um, well, his name is Andrew, and we’ve been . . . seeing each other. It’s still pretty new so I didn’t want to say anything, but, I don’t know. I really like him.”

“So he wasn’t fishing around for answers about Scott?”

Kaitlyn looks confused, and a little hurt, Tessa notices, but there’s nothing she can do now that the words are out in the open. “Um, no. Not everything is about you and Scott, Tessa.”

She’s so surprised by the statement that she can’t think of anything to say. She’s shocked into silence, speechless.

“I didn’t say that, Kaitlyn,” is finally what she says.

“You implied it, though.”

“That’s not what I meant, I’m sorry.”

“Then why did you say it?”

Kaitlyn doesn’t sound mean, or even the slightest bit accusatory, just curious, impatient, maybe.

“Because I’m still worried about how public our relationship is, I guess!”

Kaitlyn raises her eyebrows. “Really? That’s not what Andrew was telling me.”

“Oh, then what was _he_ telling you?”

Tessa knows she’s being unfair. She can just feel it, can feel herself already getting worked up over nothing. It’s fine, she shouldn’t be snapping at Kaitlyn when they both said things they shouldn’t have.

“You know,” Kaitlyn starts, “You were never like this until you and Scott got together.”

Now, Tessa senses tears pricking at the corners of her eyes, but she blinks furiously to get rid of them. She can’t think of anything to say other than a small, meek, _“oh.”_

Her voice comes out thick and full of emotion, and she feels like she’s definitely going to cry.

And with that, she walks away.

 _Sometimes_ , she tells herself, _despite the tears falling down her cheeks, it’s better to just walk away, instead of making the situation worse._

She sees Evan, Scott’s agent, before she sees her fiancé. The two of them are across the lobby at the front desk, and, from what Tessa can see, they’re checking out of their hotel.

When Evan turns around and spots her, she gestures vaguely in the direction of the restroom, and her fiancé’s agent nods. She doesn’t know if he can see that she’s crying, but, if he does, it’s honestly fine. She’s going to talk to Scott about her fight with Kaitlyn at some point, probably, just to make sure that what her former roommate said isn’t true.

Tessa makes her way to the bathroom, splashes cold water on her face and tells herself that what Kaitlyn said isn’t true at all, and, if it is, that she’s only changed for the better since meeting Scott. She’s pretty sure that’s true; she’s become surer and more confident in herself. Not that she wasn’t prior to meeting Scott, but she’s just . . . more confident now, and, as she thinks about it, she realizes how not okay what Kaitlyn just said to her was.

The fact that her former roommate had been genuinely excited for her when Tessa called her to say that Scott and her had gotten engaged just makes her feel like she’s going to cry again. Hell, even the fact that Kaitlyn drove with her today to go see Scott proves that Tessa thinks that Kaitlyn didn’t entirely mean what she said.

Tessa knows that she didn’t mean for the things she said to come out the way that they did. It’s just that she’s spent so long being afraid of what other people were saying about her and Scott that she didn’t expect Kaitlyn to say anything of that sort.

“Hey, are you okay?” Scott asks, when she reappears in the lobby. Kaitlyn has long disappeared, she notices, not that there’s anything she can say now. She isn’t sure Kaitlyn would even listen to anything she has to say. “Evan said that he saw you crying a few minutes ago, and that you went to the bathroom. I was just about to come find you, we just had to check out first. Speaking of Evan, he went out to get the car.”

She pecks his lips quickly, hugs him tightly. “You’re sweet. I’m okay, Kaitlyn and I got into a slight argument.”

“I saw her talking to a reporter-looking guy earlier, was it about that?”

“Not really. He’s her boyfriend. I asked if she was, like, talking to him about us, because she knows more about us than anyone, except maybe Evan. I didn’t know that the two of them were dating, and you know how private we’ve been about our relationship. It turns out she wasn’t talking to him about us, because, well, if they’re dating, why would she?”

“Right. Why didn't she tell you that she has a boyfriend?”

Tessa shrugs. “She said that it was too new, and that they didn't want to go public with it, which doesn't really make sense considering they were in public, talking together. I still feel bad about what I said. So I’m definitely going to apologize once I figure out what to say.”

“You know, Tess, that Kaitlyn said things that she shouldn’t have said, either. She can always apologize first. And if she doesn’t or she doesn't accept your apology, then it isn’t your fault, because at least you tried.”

“I know,” she replies as they walk out of the hotel and into the car that’s pulled up to the curve.

“Hello, Tessa. It’s nice to see you again,” Evan greets, with a smile.

“Likewise, Evan.”

“Where to, Scott? Tessa?”

The two of them share a look; Tessa’s smiling lovingly up at him and Scott is looking down at her with such pure adoration. 

Evan has to cough twice to get their attention.

Scott answers, still looking at her in that way that she can’t help it when she leans up to kiss him. 

“Anywhere, but home preferably home.”

Her heart fills with happiness when he says that, and she can’t imagine feeling this strongly about anyone but Scott, and she’s glad that she doesn’t have to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only one more chapter! Thank you all so much for reading, leaving kudos, and commenting, I appreciate it very much!
> 
> Also, some of what happens in this chapter didn't happen in the "Notting Hill" movie. Just felt I like should say that. Any inaccuracies there have been with what happens at movie premieres is entirely my own, since, well, I've never been to one! :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tessa and Scott get married.

A few days later, Tessa wakes up after a night of fitful sleep to see early morning sunlight streaming in through the window, outlining Scott’s still-asleep figure beside her. She sighs and sits up, deciding that she should probably get up, despite how much she wants to go back to sleep. She has to go to work; it’s been nice to have the past few days off, but on the other hand, she’s excited to get back.

She doesn’t know why she hasn’t been sleeping well; however, whenever she’s had an argument with someone (in this case, Kaitlyn), she can never sleep. Her mind is too busy running through all of the things she could have done or said differently, or how she could’ve apologized immediately. Or just not said the things she did at all.

Her phone buzzes from where it’s charging on the nightstand beside her, and she reaches for it, seeing Kaitlyn’s contact picture popping up on the screen.

Almost instantaneously, her stomach sinks. It’s not that she _doesn’t_ want to talk to her friend, it’s just that she doesn’t entirely know where they stand. They haven’t talked since their argument in Toronto, and she hasn’t figured out what she’s going to say, how she’s going to apologize.

Pushing all of that aside, she takes a deep breath and presses the green answer dot, brings the phone up to her ear before she leaves the room so as to not wake Scott. Not that he’ll wake up, of course, considering he’ll sleep through anything.

“Hello?” she answers easily, pretending like she isn’t full of anxiety about how she and Kaitlyn are in the middle of the first big argument they’ve had; despite being former roommates, they never really disagreed on much, and even then, she wouldn’t count those as arguments.

It takes Kaitlyn a few seconds to reply, almost like she expected Tessa’s voicemail and not for her to actually answer.

“Hi,” her friend greets, sounding surprised. “Can we . . . can we talk?”

An _I’m sorry_ is on the tip of her tongue; she can say it now if she really wants to, but Tessa also thinks that she’d rather have this conversation in person rather than over the phone. In person, it’s easier to read someone. Over the phone, things can be taken out of context, much like in a text message.

“Yeah. Do you want to meet for coffee?” Her voice is tentative, and she hates it. Hates that she feels like just because Kaitlyn said what she did about Tessa and Scott, that doesn’t mean that they aren’t friends anymore. Most of all, Tessa hates that she feels like she can’t trust Kaitlyn because of one somewhat-stupid comment she made when both of them were upset.

She doesn’t want to end their friendship over this argument, because, quite frankly, that is ridiculous. She and Kaitlyn have been friends for a long time, and she isn’t about to lose that.

“Coffee sounds great. Do you work today?” Kaitlyn asks.

“Yeah, first day back after the press tour. I took a few days off so that Scott and I could decompress.”

“You mean, have sex.” 

Kaitlyn laughs when she doesn’t answer. “I knew it. You’re engaged, Tessa, it’s okay if you admit that you guys have sex. Honestly, I’d be a little worried if you didn’t.”

Tessa winces, feeling like she’s still a teenager. She’s never felt comfortable talking about her sex life, whether or not she’s engaged. That hasn’t changed, and Kaitlyn knows that, but still likes to tease her about it from time to time.

“Thanks, Kaitlyn. Anyway, I get off at two, do you want to meet at 2:30?”

“Nice subject change, Tess. 2:30 works for me.”

 

When Tessa gets to work, she’s kind of grateful that she’s there before Marie-France. She’s been browsing a few different wedding websites, just to get a sense of what she thinks she and Scott might like. 

The two of them haven’t really talked about it, but it goes without saying that they don’t want a big wedding. Not because Scott is famous, rather that the two of them just want their wedding day to be a celebration of their love with their families and closest friends present, and not anyone from the press or people that they don’t know.

She hasn’t told him that she’s started planning, because she hasn’t, not really. Tessa has just been looking at different things. Dresses mostly, along with a few different color schemes.

“How’s the wedding planning going?” Marie-France asks, and, to Tessa’s relief, she doesn’t sound upset, just genuinely curious.

“I’m not really planning, just looking at a few things. Dresses, and a few color schemes. I want the actual planning to be something that Scott and I do something together.”

Her boss laughs as she rounds the corner to look at the computer screen. “No matter how badly you may want him to help you, that’s probably not something he’s going to be looking forward to. At least, it wasn’t with Patch, but he and Scott seem very different.”

Tessa frowns and glances back at the dresses she’d been looking at. “Yeah. Besides, I’m not going to ask him to, I don’t know . . . looking at twenty-seven different shades of purple and decide which one he likes best for one of our colors. I just want his input on the important things: the cake, the venue.”

“That makes sense. And, Tessa, a word of advice? Don’t stress yourself out too much. You’ve said before that you just want this to be a celebration of the fact that you and Scott love each other, and, at the end of the day, that’s the only thing that matters. Remember that, because a lot of people don’t. It doesn’t have to be the Wedding of the Century, and don’t worry about what the press has to say about it, because they’ll say what they want to.”

Tessa nods. “Thank you, Marie. I’m sorry, I know I should be working instead of looking at wedding things.”

Her boss waves a dismissive hand. “Don’t worry about it.”

 

Tessa meets Kaitlyn at the coffee shop down the road from _ma petite chaussure_ a few hours later. When she gets there, she orders her drink and then finds a booth for the two of them. Kaitlyn had texted that she’d gotten held up at work, so she’s going to be a little bit late, which is just fine with Tessa.

It gives her time to think about what she’s going to say to her friend. She’s already forgiven her, even if she hasn’t said it aloud yet; she forgave her almost instantly, considering she shouldn’t have asked if Kaitlyn was talking about Tessa and Scott’s relationship as, like Kaitlyn had pointed out, not everything is about the two of them.

“Hey, sorry I’m late,” Kaitlyn says, and Tessa looks over to see her shrugging off her coat and sliding it into the booth before she sits down, “Work has been crazy lately, and I’m not entirely sure why.”

Tessa nods in understanding. “It’s okay.”

Her friend looks nervous. “I’m really sorry, Tessa. I don’t know why I said the things that I did, that day in Toronto.”

“I’m sorry, too, Kaitlyn. I shouldn’t have implied that you were just talking to Andrew because of Scott and I. That was really unfair of me, and I wanted to take it back as soon as I said it.”

Kaitlyn nods. “We both said things that we shouldn’t have. You haven’t changed, Tess, and I feel really bad that I said that you did. If anything, Scott has made you more confident, which is kind of funny, considering I tried to get you to have more confidence during the years that we were roommates. Do you remember that one time, when I had a date that I really didn’t want to go on, so I convinced my date to bring his cousin so that you could come, too? You hardly said a word the whole time!”

“Kaitlyn, I hate to break it to you, but I wanted to be there even less than you did. You at least agreed to go on that date, you had to coerce me with tickets to a concert.”

As Tessa laughs and takes a sip of her coffee, Kaitlyn laughs, too, and Tessa knows that everything is okay between them.

“That’s right! How could I forget about that? That concert was with that one pop singer that Jordan used to love, and she was so jealous when we went instead of her. What was her name again?”

Tessa shrugs. “I know who you’re talking about, but I can’t think of her name. Doesn’t she have a famous boyfriend now? Wait! No, she’s dating a former _Bachelor_.”

“Oh! Remember his season? We would get together every Monday night and watch The Bachelor while eating dinner. Why don’t we do that any more? We should.”

“We definitely should.” Tessa smiles, and the two talk for another hour or so before Kaitlyn says that she has a date tonight with Andrew.

“I could help you get ready, if you want? Like old times. Obviously, I know that we’re not roommates anymore, but it could still be fun.”

“Yeah, c’mon.”

Tessa’s phone is buzzing in her purse, but she’s so busy talking to Kaitlyn that she doesn’t notice.

She finally checks her phone twenty minutes later, while sitting in the corner of Kaitlyn’s room, who is pulling potential outfits out of her closet for her date tonight. Tessa finds that she has one missed call and a text, all from Scott.

 _Forgot I had a meeting with Evan tonight, so I won’t be home for dinner, I’m sorry_! it reads, and she laughs at the guy-facepalming emoji he’s included along with the text.

 _It’s okay, I’ll see you later, right_? she answers, and his _Absolutely_ comes through almost instantly.

“Is everything okay with Scott?” Kaitlyn asks, emerging from the closet, at least five dresses on each arm.

“Yeah, he forgot that he has a meeting with his agent tonight, so he won’t be home for dinner.”

“You should come to dinner with Andrew and I. I think he’d love to meet you, Tess.”

“I don’t want to interrupt your date. You guys haven’t been dating that long, have you?”

“About a month or so,” Kaitlyn replies, setting the dresses down on her bed before turning to Tessa. “Seriously, it won’t be a problem. I’ll text him right now, if you want. I think it’ll be fun.”

“Okay, yeah.”

In the end, Kaitlyn chooses a light blue dress that Tessa had suggested the moment she saw it. It takes them about twenty minutes to get to the restaurant where they’re meeting Andrew.

Tessa’s feeling slightly nervous, and she thinks it’s because she’s meeting Kaitlyn’s boyfriend, and the few who she’s met previously haven’t exactly been someone to write home about. There was this one guy that brought his brother along, who Kaitlyn obviously didn’t know. The guy and his brother just talked the whole time and ignored Kaitlyn, which made her call Tessa to come up with an excuse. 

Tessa had called Kaitlyn a few minutes later, saying that she couldn’t find her laptop and she really needed it to finish a really important e-mail, so Kaitlyn left the date to go to home. Tessa had ice cream and a stack of movies waiting for her, as she always did whenever Kaitlyn had a date that went awry.

“Does Scott know you’re meeting Andrew?” Kaitlyn asks, to which Tessa shrugs.

“Not right at this moment, but I’ll probably tell him later.”

“Do you tell him everything?”

“We’re engaged, Kaitlyn, so . . . I guess. I want to, though. I can’t imagine not telling him everything.”

“I can’t imagine that with a guy, at least, not the guys that I’ve dated in the past. Maybe Andrew, but we’re not far enough in our relationship for me to be thinking of things like that, you know?”

“Right. I knew with Scott pretty early on, though.”

“With what?”

“That I wanted to be with him, and that I wanted to tell him everything.”

“I’m not saying that I don’t want to be with Andrew. Sorry that I don’t have total heart-eyes like you did, and still do, with Scott,” Kaitlyn teases, but there’s a hint of seriousness to it.

“I don’t . . .” Tessa starts, but stops when she realizes that, _holy shit Kaitlyn is right_. “I guess I do. Is that such a bad thing, though?”

“Not at all. You said it yourself, T. You and Scott are engaged, and I’m pretty sure there isn’t a couple out there who is more perfect than the two of you.”

“Nice of you to be pretty sure, Kaitlyn.” She tries to sound serious, but that fails when she laughs.

“Well, I don’t know. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are pretty cute. Did you see their Christmas card?”

“Yeah, yeah, it was really cute. I get it, it’s impossible to compete with a prince and a former actress.”

“You and Scott come pretty close, though.”

“Thanks, Kaitlyn. I’ll be sure to tell Scott you said that.”

“You better not, Tessa!”

“You know I’m kidding,” she says, as Kaitlyn pulls into a parking space. The night air is chilly, and Tessa pulls her jacket closer to her in a weak attempt to get warm.

When the two of them reach the restaurant, Andrew is already waiting inside. He and Kaitlyn kiss in greeting, and Tessa looks away, to be respectful.

“So,” Andrew says, once he’s pulled away from Kaitlyn. “You’re the infamous Tessa.”

She blinks. There’s something about him that makes her uncomfortable, but, considering the guy has said all of five words to her, she has no idea what it could be. “Yeah.”

“I’m Andrew, but I think you knew that already. It’s nice to meet you.”

He’s holding out his hand for her to shake, and his eyes drift down to the diamond ring sparkling on her left ring finger.

Before he says anything, the hostess appears to lead them to their table, and it’s once they’re seated that the questions begin.

“What’s it like to be engaged to a famous movie star, Tessa?” Andrew asks, and she hasn’t known him long enough to know if he’s genuinely curious or if he wants to know because he’s a journalist who wants to, she doesn’t know, get information that no one else could about her and Scott. 

Where better to get information about a relationship everyone is curious about than one of the people in said relationship?

It would be smart if she doesn’t see it coming from a mile away.

“Do you think that’s really an okay question to ask me?”

He’s stunned, that much is clear, and doesn’t bother with a follow up question, for which Tessa is thankful.

“I’m sorry,” he says to her later, after Kaitlyn leaves to go to the restroom, “I had no right to ask you that earlier.”

“No,” she replies, taking a sip of her water, “You didn’t, and I hope you don’t ask Kaitlyn intrusive questions like that. She’s a good person, and if you don’t see that, you have no business dating her.”

Andrew nods. “I care about Kaitlyn very much, and I’m surprised that she didn’t say anything after I asked you that.”

“She probably will, when it’s just the two of you.”

She doesn’t miss the flicker of uneasiness that passes across Andrew’s face, and she feels the tiniest bit proud of herself.

 

Tessa and Scott agree to go on a date with Kaitlyn and Andrew, even though both Tessa and Scott are reluctant.

After she’d told him what Andrew had asked her, how _public_ he’d been with his question, Scott flat-out refused to meet him.

Tessa can’t say that she blames him. 

She almost wishes that she didn’t meet Andrew in the first place, either.

“I just don’t want him to pry, or to feel like he has the right to ask questions about our relationship,” Scott says for the fiftieth time, worrying his lip between his teeth as he paces around their bedroom the night before the date. “Because he doesn’t, Tessa. No one has the right to know anything unless we tell them, and it angers me, scares me a little, that he could spin whatever we say to sound like something we didn’t mean.”

Tessa doesn’t even look up from the bridal magazine she’s reading. Jordan had sent it to her, and she’s been surprised to find things that she actually likes, given that she and her sister don’t exactly see eye-to-eye when it comes to fashion. She takes the time to turn the page before she answers. “I don’t know that he’s going to do that, Scott. I know you’re worried about it, and I am, too, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ourselves. You know Kaitlyn, you trust Kaitlyn, and I guess we just have to trust that she’s picked someone good, this time.”

“But, Tessa. You know that what he asked you isn’t okay, right?”

“Yes, Scott,” she replies lazily, and she finally closes the magazine, looks at him. He’s stopped pacing, but he still looks more worried than she thinks he needs to. “That’s why I told him it wasn’t okay, and why I told him later that I hoped that he didn’t talk to Kaitlyn that way, because of how disrespectful he was being.”

“You told him that? In those exact words?”

“I mean, I don’t remember exactly what I said, but I’m sure it was something along those lines.”

“You’re being awfully blasé about this, Tessa. Are you feeling okay?”

She can’t help but laugh. “Scott, I’m fine. I’m not trying to be blasé; I just know that we have no control over what he says or doesn’t say, if he takes every action of ours a certain way, so there’s no use worrying about it. I’ve never seen you this worried about having dinner with someone.”

Tessa really doesn’t mean to be so comfortable with this; she isn’t, but she’s also been with Scott for long enough that she’s realized that people are going to act how they want around him, around _them_ , and they can only be so private about their relationship.

“It’s not that, it’s just . . .” Scott pauses to climb onto the bed next to her, “I don’t want to go.”

“So you’re saying I shouldn’t invite him to the wedding? Got it.”

She tries to sound serious, lets out a giggle at the horrified look he gives her.

“Don’t worry so much,” she mumbles, leaning in to kiss him, “You know that we have no idea how tomorrow is going to go, and we can’t plan for every horrible thing that’s going to happen, right?”

“Hm, I don’t know. Maybe you should kiss me more so that I can be sure.”

A slow grin spreads across her face. “I think that can be arranged.”

 

“Tessa, I really don’t want to go,” Scott whispers the next morning, punctuating each word with a kiss.

She blinks awake slowly and glances at the clock before looking at her fiancé. “Scott, it is 5:30 in the morning. Unless you want me to purposefully _ask_ Andrew to ask questions about us, then I suggest that you go back to sleep.”

“But I can’t sleep, T! I just had a dream that he crashed our wedding!”

She rolls her eyes. “Our wedding isn’t for another six months, Scott, but I’ll hand-deliver Andrew’s invitation myself if you don’t stop bugging me.”

He only laughs. “You would never do that.”

“You’re right. Maybe. Just, please don’t worry about this, okay? The date isn’t for another twelve hours, and, if it goes horribly, we can leave.”

“Yes, dear,” he mutters under his breath, and she gives him a sleepy smile, already closing her eyes.

When Tessa wakes up three hours later, Scott isn’t in bed beside her, so she heads down the stairs to their kitchen.

Sure enough, there he is, his back to her as he stands at the stove, cracking an egg into a saucepan.

He really must not have been able to sleep, because the ends of his hair are wet and he’s wearing different pajamas than he had been earlier this morning.

“You poor thing,” she says with a frown, smiling to herself when he jumps, an egg flying into the air before it lands effortlessly back into the pan.

She runs her hands through his slightly wet hair, flicking droplets of water into the air. “You really must not have been able to sleep this morning.”

“Just say the magic words, T. I know you don’t want to go tonight, either.”

“I don’t, that’s true, but I told Kaitlyn we would and I’m not about to back out of dinner now. We’ve committed to going, Scott.”

He sighs, flipping the egg in the pan again. “Here’s an idea! How about we do a few cake tastings today?”

“I already have one scheduled for two o’clock. Besides, I don’t think we could get any bakery around here to do a cake tasting for just the two of us on short notice.”

“Tessa,” he says softly, and when he turns around, she isn’t expecting him to kiss her. “You’re forgetting that I’m a ‘famous movie star.’”

He tries to do an Andrew impersonation, but fails because he’s never met the guy.

She can’t help but laugh. “I think that egg is burning.”

“Shit,” he swears against her lips, pulls away to discover that she’s right.

They go out for breakfast.

 

Tessa and Scott are on their way to dinner that night when Kaitlyn calls her.

“I liked the blueberry cake. Not sure who would eat that in July, though,” Scott is saying, as she fishes her phone out of her purse.

“Blueberries are in season most of the year, Scott. Hello?” She answers the phone.

“Okay, I’ve told Andrew that he cannot, under any circumstances, ask any questions about you and Scott,” Kaitlyn greets.

“Thank you. Scott woke me up at 5:30 this morning because he was so distraught over it.”

“I’m sorry that privacy is important,” her fiancé grumbles from the driver’s seat, but then he grins.

“We’re at the restaurant,” Kaitlyn continues, “are you guys here yet?”

“Just about, give us five minutes.”

Tessa hangs up and she and Scott spend the rest of the car ride in silence.

“Just so you know,” he tells her innocently as they get out of the car, “if he asks _one_ question, you owe me twenty bucks.”

She laughs and shakes her head. “Absolutely not, Scott. We’re engaged, remember? What’s mine is yours, what’s yours is mine.”

The hostess leads them to a booth a few minutes later, where Kaitlyn and Andrew are already waiting.

“Tessa, Scott, it’s so nice to see you,” her friend says, smiling.

“Hey, guys,” is how Andrew greets them, not looking up from his menu.

“Hi, Andrew, Kaitlyn. It was so great of you to invite us tonight.”

Kaitlyn picks up her own menu. “Of course.”

The first few minutes are spent in tense silence, as if Tessa, Scott, and Kaitlyn are on the edge of their seats, waiting for Andrew to say something.

He doesn’t, is in fact fairly nice, and doesn’t even comment on the two of them being together.

“So, Andrew, you’re a journalist. Write anything interesting lately?” Scott asks after the waitress has cleared away their plates, trying to sound casual.

Tessa only rolls her eyes. “Scott, that’s just mean.”

“What? I’m genuinely curious, love.”

“Yeah, actually,” Andrew answers before Tessa can. “There was this lady recently who gave birth in the lobby of our building.”

“Sounds interesting,” Scott mumbles, looking like he regrets even asking.

Tessa raises her eyebrows as Kaitlyn blurts out, “We moved in together!”

“Oh, how . . . nice,” Tessa comments, and she’s very relieved when the check comes, so that she and Scott can go home. She’s tired, and she needs to be up early because she’s going dress shopping with Kaitlyn, her mom, and Jordan.

“That wasn’t so bad,” Scott tells her, as they walk into their apartment.

“You only worried about it for the past 24 hours,” Tessa remarks.

“Hey, I had a reason to worry . . . or not,” he amends, when she gives him a look.

“Do you want to know a secret?” she tells him later, as they’re lying in bed.

“What?”

“I can’t wait to marry you.”

“Aw, T, I can’t wait to marry you, either. I’d get married tomorrow if we could.”

She’s honestly half-tempted to say yes to that, because planning their wedding has been so stressful. Scott had offered, in the beginning, to hire a wedding planner, but Tessa said no, because she underestimated how hard planning this wedding would be. She thought it would just be as simple as finding a dress, a color scheme, a venue, a good caterer, a cake . . .

Okay, maybe she knew from the start that this wouldn’t be easy, but she didn’t expect it to be stressful.

“I wish we could,” she answers instead, and flicks out the light on her bedside table. “Goodnight, Scott.”

“Goodnight, Tess.”

 

Their wedding is six months later, and Tessa can say with absolute certainty, that it’s the best day of her life thus far.

Everything goes how she and Scott had planned for it to. No one objects to their marriage during the ceremony; no one shows up that isn’t supposed to, and every is genuinely happy and excited to be there.

No one alerts the press, which is what Tessa and Scott had been afraid of.

Sure, the day was the result of so much stress and a little crying, but it was worth it, so worth it. Tessa would plan a wedding a thousand times over if it meant that she could be this happy, all the time.

 _Maybe I could be a wedding planner_ , she thinks, for a brief second, and when she voices this thought aloud to Scott on their way to the reception, he raises his eyebrows and tries not to laugh.

“Tessa, I love you, and if you really want to that, then I’ll support you, no matter what. But you were so stressed about planning our wedding that you cried for what seemed like all of last month. Are you sure you want to put yourself through that all the time?”

“I don’t know,” she answers honestly, “I’ll think about it.”

 

The reception goes smoothly, and Tessa feels herself start to relax during her and Scott’s first dance.

At other weddings, she’s always seen the bride and groom whispering to each other as they danced. She always wondered what they were saying, and, when Scott spins her around the first time before whispering to her that _this is the best day of my life_ , she finally understands. Not only is today the best day of _her_ life, she gets why people get stressed out, why _she_ had gotten so stressed out during the planning process.

She wanted it to be perfect, yes, but she also wanted today to just be about love. How much she and Scott love each other, their family, and their friends. The fact that he’s famous doesn’t matter to anyone in this room, and Tessa couldn’t be more grateful to that fact. She’s known, in the year and a half that she’s dated Scott, that people have been so mean to him, about his career and asking prying questions about his life, ones that they had no right to ask.

Not unlike how Andrew did that first night that she met him, almost six months ago. He and Kaitlyn are still dating, still living together, and, considering Andrew called her the other and asked her to go ring shopping for Kaitlyn with him, they’ll probably get married soon. That won’t be a bad thing. Andrew has changed in the past few months. He realized that being a journalist wasn’t something that he wanted to do anymore, because he and Scott had somehow become pretty good friends, so he’s now writing for some network TV show.

Kaitlyn is still working at that art store next to _ma petite chaussure_ , except for now she’s started painting and doing drawings. Sometimes she’ll hang them up in the shop. She has her first art show next month, and Tessa is pretty sure that’s where Andrew is going to propose.

Her gaze flicks to her sister, Jordan, to where she’s sitting, talking with their brothers, Kevin and Casey. The three of them are laughing about something, and Tessa is glad that she and her siblings have always been close; she doesn’t know who she would be without Jordan’s humor, Kevin’s life advice, and Casey’s ability to listen. The three of them have helped her out so much in the past six months, when the planning got particularly stressful.

There have been so many people throughout Tessa’s life, and throughout her relationship with Scott, that she has been grateful for. No one ever judged her for dating a famous person, because once they met Scott, they all loved him so much that they forgot that he was famous. Half the time Tessa herself forgets that the world loves him, too, only remembering when they’re out to lunch or breakfast and they get stopped by a fan who asks for pictures and maybe an autograph.

She can’t have done this without Kaitlyn or her siblings, that much is true, but also the other people in her and Scott’s lives that love them. Their parents, Scott’s siblings, Marie-France and Patch (who are here tonight, and, once everyone else joins them out onto the dance floor, Tessa can’t help but smile at the two of them). 

She’s surrounded by so much love, she realizes, and she’s so glad that she is, that she gets to be around so many people who love her and Scott, and who they love in return.

That’s the most important thing, she thinks. 

Love. 

Who would anyone be if they didn’t love something or someone? 

It’s an essential part of life, Tessa realizes, in the way that breathing is. Loving Scott is as easy as breathing, and she can’t imagine her life without him. 

She wouldn’t be the person she is today without him; she wouldn’t be as confident, or as happy. He hasn’t completely changed who she is, because she definitely thinks that there are still parts of her that exist from before she met him, but there are things that she knows now, that she didn’t know before she met him, before they started dating.

It’s not that she didn’t believe in love before Scott came into her life; she didn’t believe that there could be that one person out there that she was supposed to be with, just because her previous boyfriend and all of Kaitlyn’s dating attempts with guys that weren’t for her didn’t give her any hope when it came to that sort of thing.

But Scott changed all of that. He taught Tessa that there _is_ that one person out there, you just have to find them (or work in a used shoe store in the hopes that they come in there, one day).

“You okay?” Scott asks her, his brown eyes warm with love and adoration as he smiles down at her.

“Perfect,” she replies, pressing her lips to his as they dance with the people they love the most around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so, so much for reading! I really appreciate it, and I don't really have anything else to say except thank you. <3 :)

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone! welcome to my newest venture, a multi-chapter inspired by the Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant movie, "Notting Hill". This is one of my favorite rom-coms, so I'm super excited about this, and I hope you are, too! :) the title is from "Only Us" from the musical "Dear Evan Hansen".
> 
> also, I've changed a few things from the movie to both better fit Tessa and Scott and so you're not just reading the same things that happen in the movie but with different characters!


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